


The flowers shine so bright

by DemonFoxArmy



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, M/M, Yôkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonFoxArmy/pseuds/DemonFoxArmy
Summary: Saihara shuichi has been sent to a village that has been experiencing strange things as of late, but while there he meets an even stranger boy who he can't keep his mind off of.
Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The story takes place in edo japan (Japan from the 1600's) this is an au where yokai and magic exsist. Hope you guys enjoy. 
> 
> Also heres some beta art i made for this au I'll probably redo it once my pc gets fixed.   
> https://demon-fox-army.tumblr.com/post/636082627873538048/this-is-some-beta-art-i-did-for-a-fanfiction-im

Shuichi sighed to himself, he was growing very tired, his feet feeling as though they might fall off any second now. He'd been traveling for 2 days now trying to get to hana village.

A few days ago the boy's uncle had been asked by a friend to investigate the village due to strange things happening within it, however Shuichi's uncle had been busy with other matters so he was sent instead. 

Shuichi was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, despite still only being an apprentice shuichi will bring honor to the teachings of his uncle, this is the oath he made to himself before leaving, but despite his determination to fulfill his oath his legs and feet seemed unfazed by it and finally gave out on him. 

Shuichi fell to the ground panting, sweat dripping down his face, his whole body feeling as though it were on fire.

"Nishishi~"

"Huh who's there" Shuichi quickly got to his feet and turned towards the forest where the laughter had come from. He could see a subtle shake of a bush as another laugh came echoing through the forest. 

With what little energy he had left he cautiously made his way to the bush. He looked everywhere however he could see no one in sight, but he did find a flowing river that had been hidden from view. Despite his nervousness of a sudden laughter coming from the forest Shuichi couldn't help but breath out a sigh of relief when he saw the river.

"Uh if anyones out there I mean you no harm I just want to talk." no response "... uh hello?... thank you for leading me to this river whoever you are" 

Shuichi scanned the area once more yet still nothing. With tired tentative steps Shuichi made his way to the river splashing the cooling water onto his face. As the water hit his skin he felt the redness of his face slowly fade away and energy slowly come back to him.

Once he had cooled off, shuichi pulled out some food from his bag. Shuichi wasn't much of a picky eater but he couldn't help but frown as he looked at the hard dry tasteless food. It had been all he had eaten since he began his journey. Ah what shuichi wouldn't give for a home cooked meal once more. As he ate he made sure to be very aware of his surroundings just in case any of the bushes started to shake or more laughing occurred. But all was silent in the forest except for the trickling of the river. 

'Huh maybe it was just my tiredness causing me to hear things' the blue haired boy thought to himself

______________________

After an hour of rest and pep talk shuichi was ready to continue his journey. For once in his life the anxious boy was feeling a bit confident. This was Shuichi's first big case and he wasn't going to let his anxiety stop him from doing his job, before he had left he had promised his uncle that he'll work on being more confident and he never broke a promise. Shuichi smiled to himself. Yeah he felt good right now.

Less than half an hour of walking the boy spotted the city he was looking for. He quickened his pace, while internally facepalming himself for wasting time taking a break when he was literally right there in front of the village. It was safe to say that the confidence Shuichi was feeling before was now gone, feeling embarrassed that he wasn't strong enough to make it when he was so close.

As he got closer to the town he could see a tall man with red hair standing near the entrance of the village waving at him. Shuichi remembered his uncle saying that his friend from Hana village was a red headed man who often wore a necklace with a white flower charm on it. As Shuichi got closer to the man he did indeed see said necklace. 

"Ah you must be Fujioji-san.. uh im.." 

The man quickly cut off Shuichi's introduction before he was even able to start it. "Ha I already know who you are." The man joyfully said as he patted the top of Shuichi's head. "Your Saihara-kun, it's really easy to tell, you remind me of your uncle, same hair color and look you even have the same piece of hair that sticks out"

Shuichi began to fidget with his own necklaces a bit, he was often nervous and anxious when meeting new people. "Uh so you told my uncle that strange things have been happening recently?" The blue haired boy asked, trying to avoid making eye contact with the man. 

The man led shuichi into town as he answered the boy's question "Ah yeah! weird things keep happening all around. Missing stuff, vandalism in strange places, buildings getting broken into! Ya know stuff like that, nothing life threatening or really harmful, but people are starting to get pissed either way!"

Shuichi put a hand to his chin processing what Fujioji-san had just told him. He couldn't really understand why the man needed outside help, all this sounded like where children's pranks '… surely it shouldn't be that hard to catch the culprit…' Well either way he was still gonna take this case seriously and get to the bottom of it, even though it just sounded like a bunch of kids messing around. "Hmmm do you have any suspects?"

The redhead just shook his head sadly "no we have no idea who's doing this, we've even set up traps to catch the culprit yet no luck. It's like they're a ghost or something!"

The man then stopped in front of a large building that looked like a bathhouse and turned towards shuichi.

"Welcome to hana bathhouse! This is where I live and where you'll be staying while you investigate" the man gave shuichi an enthusiastic smile and led him inside.

"Welcome to hana bath…ah it just you Yasumori darling, ah and this must be Saihara-kun" a woman with lavender hair walked up to Shuichi and gave him a warm smile. 

"Yes let me introduce you two, saihara this is my lovely wife Fujioji Saru. Saru, this is Saihara Shuichi and he's promised to bring peace back to our village." He gave Shuichi a thumbs up as he said this last part.

"Eh!" Shichi was taken aback at how much confidence the man had in Shuichi's ability to solve this case even though the man surely knew that he was still just an apprentice. "Uh well I'll tr..try my best" shuichi began to fidget with the moon charm on his necklace once more. "I'm still just an apprentice so I'm..I'm not that good."

"HAVE MORE FAITH IN YOURSELF!" 

A loud voice boomed from the doorway on shuichi's left. As the young detective turned his head he spotted another boy about his age standing there looking intense. 

"Come on man if you keep acting like that you'll never get stronger!" The unknown boy shouted as he began to make his way to shuichi.

"Uh uh I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you" shuichi stammered out to the taller boy before him.

The taller boy began to scratch his head "Ugh you don't gotta apologise… just don't do it next time, ok?" Shuichi just nodded still a bit shaken up from the loud boy's sudden appearance. 

Fujioji made his way to the loud boy and put him in a head look "hehe Saihara-kun this is my number 1 employee Momota Kaito! Kaito, Say hi to our guest, Saihara-kun!" 

With energy that matched his bosses kaito intruder himself "I'm Momota kaito, luminary of the stars!" It's a pleasure to meet you saihara-kun!"

"Uh I'm saihara shuichi it's a pleasure to meet you." 

Fujioji turned to kaito "kaito Show saihara-kun where his room is yeah!"

"You got it sir!" Kaito gave his boss a quick thumbs up and dragged Shuichi up the stairs. Once they reached the top kaito point towards the door nearest to their left "Alright this is your room, when you're done unpacking come downstairs for dinner ok?" 

Shuichi nodded to kaito, the loud boy gave him a thumbs up before leaving the room. 

*sigh* 'well this is certainly going to be an interesting trip' saihara chuckled to himself while he unpacked.

_______________________

"Ah saihara-kun please sit down and eat will you" saru pointed to a seat that was in front of a plate of food.

"Ah thank you." After two days of traveling and only awful tasteless food to eat shuichi thought the meal looked like heaven.

Saru flashed a warm smile to Shuichi. "Ah it's no problem really. I should be thanking you for traveling so far just to help us." 

"Yeah!" Fujioji beamed "and as extra thanks you can use the hot springs all you want" he gave saihara a wide grin.

"Um ah... thank you for the offer but I probably won't be using it that much. I wanna try and focus on the case"

Fujioji simply nodded to that "ok well just don't work yourself too hard and if you start feeling tired one dip in our hot springs will restore all the energy you'll ever need." Fujioji laughed as he began to happily down the food.

___________________________

After dinner shuichi went back upstairs to his room, wanting to have an early start he went straight to bed, but as he laid there he couldn't help but feel as though he was being watched. He tried his best just to ignore it and sleep, chalking it up to it just being his anxiety and his uneasiness at being away from home.

____________________________

After eating breakfast and explaining to the family he was staying with his plans for the day Shuichi quickly made his way out the front door, as soon as he opened the door he was face to face with kaito.

"Ah saihara-kun your heading out already?"

"Uh yeah I'm gonna go around town and look for clues." 

"Ah ok well after I'm done with work I'll come help you. Oh! And I suggest you head towards the forest near the entrance of the village you'll probably bump into the gremlin" 

"...Uh gremlin?"

"Ah yeah there's a boy with purple hair that's always hanging around that area, he refuses to tell me his name so i just call him the gremlin. I just know he has something to do with all the weird things that's been happening! I just haven't been able to prove it yet! But I swear I'll catch him or my name's not momota kaito!"

Shuichi just gave kaito a nervous smile "ok I'll do that momota-kun."

Kaito flashed shuichi a grin and thumbs up before heading inside.

It wasn't a long walk for shuichi to reach the entrance of the village. He could see the forest not too far away, but before he knew what was happening the air was knocked out of him and he was on the ground. When he looked back up he saw a purple haired boy who was around his age on the floor across from him. 

"Ah I'm so so sorry for bumping into you!" Shuichi quickly got to his feet and went to go help the boy up. "I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings."

The purple haired boy simply dusted himself off and gave shuichi a wide grin "Nishishi don't worry about it new guy it was just an accident"

Before shuichi could continue his apology the boy quickly turned away from shuichi and began to walk away until the boy abruptly stopped and began to frantically pat himself down, after a few pat downs the boy quickly turned towards shuichi once again but this time the boy's grin was gone and he looked angry.

"Hey new guy where's my bag!" the purple haired boy pointed an accusatory finger towards shuichi.

"Uh bag?" Shuichi began to sweat at the boy's sudden accusation.

"Yeah my purple bag that I just had on me" angry tears began to form in the eyes of the purple haired boy "did you steal it?... I thought we were friends" the boy's tears began to fall from his face, his voice cracking.

Despite the boy's accusations towards himself shuichi couldn't help but feel bad for the boy, he looked so hurt... 'This bag must be very important to him.' Shuichi thought to himself. "Uh no, no I didn't steal your bag I promise. It must have fallen off when we bumped into each other. Here let me help you find it."

The purple haired boy's tears soon began to vanish as he looked at shuichi "really you promise you didn't *sniff* steal my bag?" 

Shuichi just nodded to the boy. At this the boy's grin once again returned. "And you said you'll even help me look for my bag? Wow new guy you're really nice... Buuut you don't have to help me, I already know where it is."

"Wait huh you do?" Shuichi looked at the boy, very confused, having no idea what's going on.

"Nishishi yup I do" the boy quickly pulled a purple bag from his pocket. "See it's right here in my pocket!"

"Wait what? but i thought you said it was missing?!" shuichi had no idea what was going on at this point. 

The boy gave a micheviouse laugh "I lied. I'm a liar ya know" the boy closed his eyes and simply grinned. "Welllll actually I didn't completely lie, someone's bag did get taken just not mine."

The boy quickly moved his hand behind his back, when his hand moved back to his front he was holding a midnight blue bag with a moon crests on it... He was holding shuichi's bag!

"Huh wha!" shuichi couldn't form any words, he was so confused.

"Nishishi it was your bag that was taken. Don't worry you can have it back… buuuut first ya gotta catch me!" The purple haired boy quickly turned away from shuichi and ran. 

"Wait! hey stop!" shuichi quickly ran after the boy. 

The purple haired boy was able to easily outrun shuichi, however whenever shuichi dragged too far behind he would slow his pace down and let shuichi catch up once again.

'Why is this boy making me chase him and why does he keep letting me catch up to him? Is he trying to lead me into a trap? Is he trying to tire me out so that he can steal the rest of my stuff?' Shuichi couldn't wrap his head around what the boy was trying to do.

After what seemed like hours of running to shuichi his lungs began to feel like they were on fire, his vision began to blur, then all of a sudden the ground was getting closer to his face. The blue haired boy didn't even try to get up, he just laid there panting and sweating on the ground haven given up.

With the lack of the sound of heavy footsteps and breathing behind him the purple haired boy quickly turned around to see what had happened to his new playmate. The boy quickly spotted the taller one on the ground and made his way towards him.

When the purple haired boy stood in front of shuichi the blue haired boy raised his head to look at the boy in front of him and lightly grabbed his leg. The smaller boy either didn't notice or care that Shuichi was lightly holding his leg.

"Awwww you're giving up already? You've only been chasing me for 5 minutes now. Howwww boooooring even momota-chan can entertain me longer than this."

"Give me *pant* my bag *wheeze* back huuu please" shuichi had never been so out of breath in his life, he rarely ran around like this, he prayed to the gods that he'll never have to run again.

With a smile on his face the smaller boy simply shook his head "mmm nope. I told ya I'll give you your bag back if you catch me. Buuut~ ya didn't so no bag for you Nee-heehee."

"But *wheeze* I did *pant* catch you"

"Huh whatcha mean?"

Shuichi lightly squeezed the boy's leg, the one he had been holding onto this whole time.

The shorter boy quickly looked down seemingly noticing for the first time that the other was holding his leg. A quick look of shock was on his face however he quickly changed his face to look neutral. "Huh wait you just pretend to be tired so that you could trick me!"

"Uh no... I'm actually really tired right now, but when I saw you walk towards me and that your leg was in reach I decided to grab it making sure you didn't know what I was doing"

The purple haired boy's face was void of all emotions as he thought to himself. He easily got loose of Shuichi's grip on his leg.  
"Hmm well even though I could easily escape your grip and just run away...I'll be nice this time since you're new, I'll let you win this game. Ok?... I might have slightly dropped my guard around you… but only because you look so weak... So I made a mistake, no big deal. Here you can have your bag back."

Shuichi quickly got up and grabbed his bag "uh yeah thank you" 

The purple haired boy then began to grin again his hands behind his head. "Oh byyy the wayyy i won't go so easy on you next game, kay? Nishishi. Until next time Mr defective~" 

As he spoke those last words the purple haired boy quickly ran and disappeared from sight. Leaving shuichi confused and curious. 

____________________

Shuichi quickly ran around town looking for clues and asking people questions about the strange events that have been unfolding. However as hard as he tried he couldn't quite focus, he couldn't stop thinking about the strange boy he had just talked to and to make matters worse he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, he kept seeing purple at the edge of his view, but whenever he went to go look at it it was gone. 

As the day went by and the more stories he listened to shuichi began to understand why everyone was stumped on who could be causing all this trouble. Stories of places that were under high security getting broken into but no traces of a culprit in sight, large objects seemingly disappearing, dozens of houses having their stuff moved around or hidden in one night, chickens being hidden all around town and that was just the beginning. Shuichi had already written many things in his notebook. He could already tell he had his work cut out for him.

As the sun began to set, Shuichi aimlessly walked around the village lost in thought trying to process all the clues.

"Saihara-kun!" Kaito ran full speed towards Shuichi once he spotted him. "There you are! Fujioji-san told me to tell you to start heading back to the bathhouse, dinner will be ready soon."

"Ah sorry i was lost in thought, I'll head there right now. Thank you momota-kun"

"Ah wait before you go did you run into the gremlin?"

"Uh you mean the guy who's about our age, this tall and has purple hair right?"

"Yeah yeah that's the bastard! Well didn't I tell you he's totally behind all the weird things happening right!? I mean come on it so obvious!"

Shuichi just shook his head "it's too early for me to start assuming who the culprit is and even if it was him there's no way he's doing this alone, from the stories I've been told there's no way one person can do all that in one night. I'm pretty sure a large group is behind all this"

"Mm yeah you're probably right but i still say that you should keep an eye on that guy, he definitely knows something. Imma head home now see yeah saihara-kun!" 

"Bye momota-kun have a good night"

The two boys went into opposite directions as they made their way back to their respective homes. 

Once Shuichi reached the bathhouse he quickly ate his dinner, making sure to thank Saru for the meal and made his way to his room so that he'd have some silence while he collected his thoughts. 

'Ok so if I take into account the night a bunch of chickens were hidden around town and the night that 16 different house had there stuff hidden and moved around including there furniture then I can conclude that these pranks aren't the work of just one person but by a large group of people… yeah there's no way one person can pull all that off especially in one night and since none of them have been caught they all must be very smart and skilled at sneaking around in the dark… Hmm and there is that purple haired boy too. He definitely seems like the type to enjoy messing with people like this... Yeah I'll definitely need to find him again he must know something.'

As he remembered the purple haired boy his eyes shifted to the bag the boy had briefly taken from him. He had been so busy today that he didn't have time to check if the purple haired boy had taken anything from it. Shuichi hoped he didn't, he needed everything that was in that bag to help him solve the case.

He quickly grabbed the bag and when he opened the bag he was surprised, not only was all his stuff there but there was something new as well. Shuichi cautiously picked up the item.

"Huh a piece of candy?" 'Uh this might be a prank candy or something i probably shouldn't eat it' Shuichi simply placed the candy back into his bag, he then grabbed said bag and his notebook and placed them in the left corner of the room, after this he got himself ready for bed and despite being unable to shake the feeling of being watched he was still able to fall asleep rather quickly thanks to how long and tiresome his day had been.


	2. A night of games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi gets to know kokichi a little more while kokichi continues to mess with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At one point in the story the boys play a game called kitsune-ken it's an old Japanese version of rock paper scissors played during the edo period. (Fox beats headman, hunter beats fox and headman beats

Shuichi slowly got out of bed still feeling tired, with blurred vision he slowly scanned the room '… wait somethings not right here'. As Shuichi looked around the room something seemed off, he couldn't pin down on what it was exactly though. The boy scanned the room once more before ah! That's what was off... the boy swore he had put his bag and notebook in the left corner of the room... But now it was in the right corner "huh?"

He slowly got up and grabbed his stuff,  
He opened his notebook and flipped through the pages nothing about it had changed.. except wait? Was that a tiny drawing of him in the corner of a page 

'...my eyelashes aren't that long...right?'

The boy then looked through his bag and saw that there was a 2nd piece of candy in it.

Shuichi spent the rest of his morning looking through his room for more clues, but in the end hunger got the best of him, he decided to call a quits after finding nothing.

As the blue haired boy made his way to breakfast he was greeted by the couple that was already seated at the table. 

Saru handed him a plate of food with a smile. "Saihara-kun how was your morning dear? it took you awhile to leave your room."

Shuichi returned Saru's smile as he took the plate and sat down "Uh I'm still a bit tired and I think someone broke into my room last night?"

"What! who did it! Are you ok?!" Fujioji-san quickly looked shuichi over making sure he wasn't hurt.

"Im ok really they just moved my stuff around and drew something in my notebook, See." Shuichi then showed the couple the page with the drawing on it.

"Huh simple but cute, I kinda like it. It looks just like you saihara-kun." saru giggled to herself as she admired the drawing.

Shuichi couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he quickly closed his notebook back up. "..Uh yeah other than that the rest of my room was normal… I think I'll go back into the woods and talk to that boy again I'm pretty sure he's the one behind this"

"Ok saihara-kun good luck then... Oh yeah! I packed you a lunch saihara-kun here." Saru handed Shuichi a small box, the boy gently placed it into his bag then ate his breakfast, the food was good as always.

As soon as shuichi was done with his meal he made his way to the front door and just like last time as soon as he opened the door he was face to face with kaito.

"Ah saihara-kun good morning!" Kaito gave Shuichi a bright smile, his voice full of energy like always.

"Good morning momota-kun" Shuichi gave kaito a small smile as he slid past.

Before Shuichi could get far Kaito grabbed his hand. "Ah before you leave saihara-kun I want to apologize for yesterday"

"Apologize?"

"Yeah, yesterday I promised you that I was gonna help you investigate after work but I was too busy to help, so i apologize." 

"Ah momota-kun it's really ok you don't need to apologize."

"That just means I have to work twice as hard today so I can get out of work early and make it up to you! Because that's what heros do!" With energy bursting at the seams kaito quickly ran inside the bathhouse.

Shuichi just smiled to himself and shook his head as he made his way back to the forest. When he arrived at the entrance of the village he made sure to be aware of his surroundings, not wanting to bump into the boy again like last time, but the boy was nowhere in sight. Shuichi made his way into the forest looking around at his surroundings trying to catch a glimpse of purple. 

Without warning something purple jumped out from behind a tree and in front of shuichi. 

"Boo!"

"AHH!"

"Nishishi man you should see the look on your face! ha! Priceless. Man your easy to scare saihara-chan~"

Shuichi was breathing a little heavier now. He was clutching his chest, his heart was going crazy from the sudden surprise "Anyone would have been scared by that." The boy huffed out. "… wait how do you know my name? I never told you?"

The short purple haired boy tilted his head to the side and gave Shuichi a confused look. "Huh? What do you mean of course you did silly, you told me yesterday when we were playing"

Shuichi just shook his head and put his hand to his face in thought "no?… yeah no I definitely didn't tell you my name"

The boy just grinned back "Awww yeah you got me that was a lie. I'm actually a mind reader! Nehehe." 

"...Uh that's a lie too...right?"

"Nishishi, I don't know mr detective why don't you figure it out.

Shuichi sighed and shook his head. He had barely spoken to the boy but he couldn't help but feel both tired and curious when speaking to him. He wanted to solve the mystery of this boy but also wished he'd give him a straight answer at least once. "hmmm Ok well if you already know my name then why don't you tell me yours."

"Mmm nah, If you want something from me then you'll have to beat me at another game. Kay? Sooo~ ya gonna play another game with me yeah! yeah!?!"

Shuichi should have known he wouldn't get a straight answer *sigh*. Shuichi carefully thought about the boy's offer before he gave an answer. 'I mean it's just a game right? It won't kill me..right?' he needs to at least try. "...Ok I except"

The shorter boy got excited at these words, his eyes began to sparkle. "yay! Y'know you're not as boring as you look Nishishi. Ok ok so the game we'll be playing isss kitsune-ken!"

"kitsune-ken? But isn't that all luck based?"

The purple haired boy put a finger to Shuichi's mouth. "hush hush peasant your leader has spoken"

Shuichi just sighed "ok"

The two boys stood in front of each other and began to chant in harmony together. 

"Fox, hunter, headman!"  
"Fox, hunter, headman"

Both boys played fox, resulting in a tie.

"Wow peasant I guess luck has graced you with a tie, but that luck will soon run out. Again!"

"Fox, hunter, headman!"  
"Fox, hunter, headman!"

Tie 

The purple haired boy was starting to get antsy "I'll get you this time!"

"Fox, hunter, headman!"  
"Fox, hunter, headman!"

Tie 

This went on for some time.

"Aww man 100 ties. How boooring. I'm done playing Byeee~" the purple haired boy turned to walk away

Shuichi quickly went towards the boy and tried to stop him from leaving. "Wait! don't go yet I haven't finished talking to you… please stay." 

"Aww how sweet did you really have that much fun playing with me~" the purple haired boy turned back around and winked at shuichi. "Ok how about this since we tied I'll give you a bit of my name. Kay~? O.U. that's the first 2 letters of my name."

"O.U?" Shuichi said more to himself than the other.

"Yup and if you want to play some more with me then meet me here at sunset. Kay?"

"...ok. I'll be there." Shuichi had so many questions for the boy and he was determined to get them even if it meant staying up all night playing games and solving riddles.  
_____________________

Shuichi quickly made his way back to the bathhouse.

"Welcome to... saihara-kun what are you doing here?" Kaito looked at shuichi questionably

"Ah hi momota-kun I came here so that i could sleep"

"What sleep!?! It's the middle of the morning bro!"

"Yeah I know but I just talked to the purple haired boy and he said to meet him in the forest at sunset. I think you were right momota-kun he's somehow involved in what's been happening to the village and I need to ask him a few questions."

"But why do you need to sleep now saihara-kun? You said you were gonna just meet him at sunset right?" Kaito was still very much confused about the situation.

"I'm not just going to meet with him but I'm also going to stay up all night to watch the town. Fujioji-san said that all the pranks happen at night so I'm sure I'll find a clue to this case if i watch the village at night"

"Hmmm Ok. I'll wake you at sunset and go with you to the forest"

"Ah thank you momota-kun" shuichi gave kiato a small smile and made his way to his room. Once inside the room shuichi grabbed a pencil and began to write in his notebook.

9/20 day 3

Today I talked to the boy with purple hair again. I'm fairly sure he's the one who broke into my room this morning and drew in my notebook and put a 2nd piece of candy in my bag (I'm too scared to eat the candy let alone open them, they might be a trap). The boy made me play kitsune-ken with him, we tied exactly 100 times… (how did he do that?) He then told me the first two letters of his name, which was O.U. He then told me to meet him in the woods at sunset. Just from talking to him I can tell that he's very clever but also micheviouse. It won't be easy to get answers from him, but I just know that he's the key to solving this case. 

Shuichi closed his notebook and went to bed and like every night before he felt as though he was being watched, he tried his best to ignore it. 

___________________________

*knock knock* "yo saihara-kun its sunset come on bro time to get up"

With slow steps shuichi slowly made his way to the door.

Kaito was there waiting for him "Come on bro why do you look so tired you've been asleep all day. Come on bro get pumped!" Kaito shook Shuichi to help him wake up.

"Aaahahah" shuichi was startled by the sudden movement causing his adrenalin to instantly wake him up fully.

"Ah there you go bro now you look ready" kaito grabbed shuichi's arm and began to drag him down the stairs and out the front door "come on bro let's go find that little gremlin and make him talk!"

Shuichi just let Kaito drag him along. When they reached the front of the forest the purple haired boy was nowhere in sight.

"Hey! Where's the gremlin, he better not have been lying about meeting up with you saihara-kun or he's gonna get it!" Kaito angrily shook his fist in the air as a mock threat. 

"Uh maybe he's hiding in the forest? He was in there when I bumped into him last time" shuichi retorted

"Ok let's look then!" Kaito ran into the forest and began looking behind trees and in bushes, Shuichi not too far behind him looked around too. 

It was already hard enough that Shuichi didn't know the woods very we'll but the light from the sun slowly began to fade making the search that much harder. After a few hours of searching he and Kaito stopped and stood in front of the shallow part of the river.

Kaito gave shuichi a tired look as he spoke. "Man saihara-kun I bet you that little devil was just lying to us! He's not gonna show, it's freezing out here bro i say we head back to the village and forget that guy!" Kaito began to shake as another cooling breeze hit him.

Shuichi turned his head so that he could answer the boy next to him, but when he looked the boy was gone 'huh?'.

*splash* "AHHHH!"

Shuichi quickly turned towards the river and saw that kaito was now sitting in the pool of cold water looking completely soaked.

The short, purple haired boy was now beside Shuichi dying from laughter as he watched Kaito get up and out of the river. "HAHAHA! Oh my god momota-chan you should have seen the look on your face hahaha priceless" 

"WHY YOU! COME HERE SO THAT I CAN BEAT YOU!" kaito lunged towards the shorter boy, but the boy saw this coming and easily dodged the attack causing kaito to fall to the ground.

"First ya gotta catch me idiot~ Nishishi" the smaller boy started to run as kaito got up.

Kaito persuaded the boy anger written across his face. The smaller boy was able to easily dodged kaito's attempts to grab him, he ran behind trees, made sharp turns at the last minute. He was practically running circles around kaito, at one point he almost got kaito to run straight into a tree. It took little effort for the short boy to finally tire kaito out who was already feeling tired from working all day to begin with. 

Shuichi walked over to the exhausted kaito and placed a hand on his back "uh momota-kun i think you should head back home now"

Kaito quickly snapped up and looked to Shuichi. "what! Why?!?"

Shuichi gave kaito a concerned look as he spoke to him "Ah well it's because your clothes are soaked and it's freezing out here if you stay out here any longer you'll catch a cold plus you've been working all day, you look exhausted."

The short boy threw an evil grin as he spoke to the cold, wet and tired kaito. "Yeah momota-chan you should leave and let me and saihara-chan talk in peace" the short boy then walked over to shuichi and put an arm around shuichi's shoulders.

Anger was instantly put back onto kaito's face. "Like hell I'm going to leave saihara-kun here with you!" 

shuichi flashed kaito a small smile to help reassure the other that he will be ok.  
"momota-kun no really it's ok I'll be fine don't worry about me you should just head home and warm yourself up before you get sick" 

Kaito just breathed out heavily as he looked at the other two boys "...ok if you say so saihara-kun I'll trust your judgement" he then quickly looked to the short boy and gave him a threatening glare "And if you so much as hurt saihara-kun even a little bit im coming after you! Got it!"

The short boy just smiled "Nishishi, don't worry momota-kun I'm a pacifist, I would never hurt saihara-kun."

Kaito looked at the other two once more before he turned around and begrudgingly made his way back to the village. 

Once kaito was out of sight the purple haired boy turned to shuichi and gave him a coy smile his voice came out breathlessly "soooo~ now it's just you and me again mr detective. Whatcha wanna do? Hmm" 

Shuichi couldn't help but blush at the way the other boy talked to him and the look he was giving him didn't help either "um uh... we could play another game? if i win you answer a few of my questions...deal?" Shuichi began to fidget with his necklaces feeling a sudden rush of nervousness.

"And what if i win?" The purple haired boy asked

Shuichi just gave him a confused look "Uh? I don't know, what do you want?"

The shorter boy began to tap his chin as though he was deep in thought "hmmm what do i want?" All of the sudden the boy's face changed into something demonic looking his once playful voice now threatening and dark "i want to kill you"

"What!" Shuichi was shocked at the boy's sudden change, his hair now standing on end.

"Nishishi but that's a lie." the boy's face went back to normal, his cheerfulness instantly returning "I just want you to buy me dinner kay."

The boy's sudden changes in mood was giving shuichi major whiplash "Uh... ok deal... So what game are we playing this time?"

"Nishishi, i already planned our game ahead of time. Ok so here's how it will go, I've written the last two letters of my name they're here in this forest now. If you can find them before sunrise then you win kay?" the purple haired boy quickly ran up to Shuichi and gave him a hug, surprising the other boy. "Good luck saihara-chan~"

The detective broke away from the hug and began to look around the forest as he thought to himself 'ok if i was trying to hide some letters where would i put them?... well first I would make sure the letters wouldn't get destroyed so writing it in the dirt is a no go… anywhere near the river is also a no… maybe he carved it into a tree or perhaps maybe he made some kind of structure?'

After a few minutes of silence the purple haired boy began to grow impatient. He walked over to Shuichi and began to poke him. "Geezzzz mr detective you're being sooo boring and sooooo quiet right now. Come on say something already."

Shuichi began to fidget with his necklace once more."Ah sorry I'm not really good at talking and stuff" 

"Don't be sorry just tell me what you're thinking. Kay?"

"Uh ok... well right now I'm looking for any structures that are in the shape of a letter or maybe some carvings on the trees."

"WoOoOw hoW oUt Of ThE bOx" the shorter boy rolled his eyes as he mockingly said this.

'...Was that a hint?...ok maybe I'm on the wrong track. Maybe i should look at this another way hmmm… what do i know about this guy… well he likes to mess with people, he likes to lie and... He likes to steal and he says there's two hidden letters… so if i was this boy where would i hide two letters?...two things two things...WAIT! I think i got it!'

Shuichi quickly grabbed his bag and began to look through it 'yes there they are!' He pulled out the two candies and examined them.

The purple haired boy tilted his head as he watched the detective "Huh what's wrong mr detective hungry?" 

Shuichi ignored the question and began to unwrap the first candy and lo and behold there inside the wrapper was a letter in purple writing M, shuichi quickly opened the second candy and just like before another letter was written on the inside of the wrapper this one an A… 'O.U.M.A.'

Shuichi whispered to himself "Ouma?"

"Huh what's that mr detective?" 

"Uh your name is ouma...right?"

The purple haired boy face was emotionless as he stared at the detective until a sudden smile cracked on his face 

"WOW mr detective you really are smart" the boy then walked up to shuichi and popped one of the candies into his mouth "yup you're right my name is ouma, Ouma kokichi. Nishishi nice to meet ya Saihara Shuichi." Kokichi took a pause and began to frown. "awww man you figured that out a lot sooner than i thought you would. Hmph i guess you win this round. No fair"

Shuichi felt a little pride at being able to solve kokichi's riddle so fast "since I won that means you have to answer my questions... right?"

Kokichi had a sad look on his face as he answered the question "Yeah you get to ask me a few questions… man i was really looking forward to getting a free dinner"

Shuichi couldn't help but chuckle a little at that last part "hmm how about this I buy you dinner as long as you promise to behave while we eat."

Kokichi's smile instantly returned "awww saihara-chan you're so sweet." Kokichi grabbed the others hand and led him deeper into the woods "come on saihara-chan let's go eat then!"

"Wait what now but it's the middle of the night ouma-kun all the shop's are closed!"

"Don't worry my beloved I know a place, just follow me" kokichi said this as he gave Shuichi a wink.

"Uh beloved?" Shuichi couldn't help but blush a little even though he knew kokichi was probably just messing with him.

"Nishishi, anyone who buys me food is my beloved. Now come on slowpoke I'm starving!" Kokichi quickened his pace dragging Shuichi along with him deeper and deeper into the forest.

Shuichi just let kokichi drag him along, but he was starting to have a hard time seeing where he was going, kokichi on the other hand seemed unfazed by the darkness. "Hey ouma-kun how far away is this shop?"

"Hmmm oh we'll be there in like half an hour if we keep going at this pace"

Shuichi just sighed at this "um ok well since it's going to be awhile before we get there can i ask you some questions?"

"Hmmm sure go ahead mr detective"

"Ok first question do you know about the group that is terrorizing hana village?"

"Hmmm? nope i don't know anything about a group pranking hana village. Also why would you say terrorise it's not like anyone's getting hurt it's just fun little pranks Nishishi."

"Uh ouma-kun you're not lying to me right now... right?"

"Huh lying?!? Ya know i hate liars shuichi… but to answer your question nope any question you ask me right now will be 100% honest and that's not a lie."

Shuichi put a hand to his chin as he thought to himself. 'I don't know if I can trust everything he says but he's the best lead i have right now so i might as well go along with it for now.' "ok ouma-kun so you're saying you have nothing to do with the group that's pranking hana village?"

"Nope, I'm not part of any group that is currently pranking hana village, but now that you mention it, have I told you that I'm the supreme leader of a group of over 10,000 members? None of my followers are pranking hana village right now though so you don't need to worry about them."

"...Yeah that was definitely a lie"

"Wha! My beloved saihara-chan, are you calling me a liar!?!" Kokichi's face turned into a pout "i am a supreme leader and that's not a lie"

Shuichi wasn't buying any of this "Ouma-kun how is that even possible? There isn't even 10,000 people in hana village"

Kokichi continued to pout at shuichi "Well none of my followers live in hana village they live around the world y'know."

"We'll if you live here how come you don't have any followers in the village?"

"Huh? I don't live here silly, I'm just visiting for a couple of months. Even supreme leader's need to go on a journey and see the world y'know."

Shuichi just ignored the supreme leader remark. "Sorry I didn't know you were just a visitor… so what brought you here of all places?" 

"Nishishi I was invited to this super cool party that's going to be happening in late October! Hey saihara-chan if i don't get bored of you by then i can make you my plus one~." 

"Uh thank you?" 'I hope it doesn't take me that long to solve this case though' 

"No problem my beloved~. I might even come ask you to watch the tsuki flowers bloom if you keep being nice to me and buying me dinner."

"The tsuki flowers, what's that?"

"Wha! You've never heard of them? They're like really pretty flowers that bloom here in the fall and at night they do something amazing, of course I'll keep that last part a secret so you'll be surprised when it happens" kokichi closed his eyes and gave shuichi a gentle smile as he said this last part, suddenly the boy's eyes popped back open and he pointed an excited finger towards the distance. "ah saihara-kun you see that blue light over there that's the shop we're heading to come on full steam ahead!"

Shuichi was glad to hear that they were close to their destination he was starting to feel pretty hungry now, but despite his hunger he couldn't help but think it was weird that there was a shop in the middle of a forest.

After a few more minutes of walking the shop was in full view. Shuichi could see the sign, it said 'neko neko dinner', next to the letters was a picture of a cat eating a bowl of ramen. Everything about the shop was fairly normal… well except for two things, for one the shop was lit up with blue touches, shuichi didn't even know it was possible to have blue touches and two was that the two guys running the stand kinda looked off. One was an older man who was quite big and chubby while the other was a boy around shuichi's age who was extremely short, now that on it's own wasn't weird at all, but what was weird is that they both kinda looked like… cats? The older man especially.

Kokichi seemed unfazed by these few oddities and quickly took a seat. Shuichi pulled out a chair and sat next to him feeling a bit on edge.

The extremely short boy made his way to the front of the stall where the seating area was and looked to kokichi. He spoke in a very deep voice "ah ouma-kun back again i see and you brought a pal" the short boy turned to shuichi and began to introduce himself " my name is hoshi ryoma, welcome to neko neko dinner"

Shuichi began to fidget with his necklaces a bit "my name's saihara shuichi nice to meet you hoshi-kun"

Ryoma gave shuichi a nod before turning back to kokichi "look ouma-kun i know it's in your people's nature to mess with others and pull pranks but please keep it under control while you're here ok"

"Nishishi, don't worry hoshi-chan i already promised my beloved saihara-chan that I'll behave, i mean it's the least i can do since he's paying for it all" kokichi then proceeded to pat shuichi on the back then place his arm around the other's shoulders.

Ryoma just sighed feeling a bit sorry for shuichi "alright, what will you guys be having today?"

Kokichi began to bounce a little as he spoke "I'll have the sweet strawberry cake with some sweet grape juice make both of them extra sugary kay"

Shuichi quickly scanned the menu before giving his order "um I'll have the chicken ramen with tea please"

Ryoma nodded to the two before turning away.

Once ryoma was out of sight shuichi turned to kokichi "… hey while we're waiting for our food can i ask you some questions?"

"Hmmm... ok! but if you ask me something boring i'm never talking to you again kay~"

That last part kinda made shuichi a bit nervous causing him to once again fidget with his necklace "um ok well uh have you seen anything strange happening in town?" 

Kokichi's face and voice became a bit dark as he answered the question "Well that depends, what do you consider strange? Y'know something strange for you might be normal for me and vice versa… so saihara-chan what exactly do you mean by that hmmm"

"..." Shuichi was at a loss for words, kokichi was definitely different from anyone he's ever met, he was very clever and tricky never giving shuichi a straight answer. Shuichi didn't want to admit it but it was kind of fun talking to kokichi, the boy was like a puzzle, Shuichi wanted nothing more than to solve said puzzle. 

Shuichi blinked back to focus as kokichi waved a hand in front of him "Yo earth to saihara-chan, what are you doing in there, playing a word game?"

Shuichi scratched his head feeling a bit embarrassed "Ah sorry ouma-kun I kinda got lost in thought.. you know you're kinda different from anyone I've ever met."

"Oh~ is that a compliment saihara-chan~ and what way am i different?" Kokichi was now staring deeply into shuichi's eye's 

Shuichi desperately tried to avoid eye contact with the other boy, he was starting to feel a bit anxious "I can tell you're very clever… you know a lot more than what you lead on and not just about this case but other things too. I think you're hiding some kind of secret."

Kokichi just giggled as he continued to stare at shuichi "Saihara-chan are you trying to butter me up by calling me smart so I'd answer your questions without a fight. Aww you're making me blush… but that won't work on me but don't let that stop you from praising me"

'Did ouma-kun just get closer to me?'

Shuichi's pale face was starting to turn a little pink now "That's not what i was trying to do ouma-kun I'm just letting you know that I'm not gonna underestimate you"

"Neither will I." kokichi simply stated in return. "y'know I've never met a detective before but i have heard that they were supposed to be smart and well let's just say you don't disappoint, even if you're as easy to read as a book. As long as you're not boring saihara-chan I'll keep talking to you, so make sure you keep it up i want this game to be fun for both of us" kokichi gave shuichi a flirtatious smile and wink causing the other to get flustered, 

Before Shuichi could even come up with a retort ryoma had passed them they're food, kokichi was no longer focused on Shuichi but was rather staring at his cake ready to down it all right then and there. Shuichi was secretly glad for the distraction, he really didn't know how to respond to what kokichi had said.

'I shouldn't take everything ouma-kun says seriously he's just trying to mess with me and make me distracted...but even then…'

"Saihara-chan~"

"Huh what is it ouma-kun?"

"I want you to try some of my food it's soooo good"

Shuichi looked to the cake kokichi had just been eating, he couldn't lie it did look pretty good "...Uh ok sure I'll try some"

"Yay!" Kokichi grabbed a piece of cake with his fork and started to bring it towards shuichi mouth "now say ahhhh~"

Shuichi was a little surprised. "Wait you're going to feed it to me?"

" of course silly now say ahhh~"

Shuichi just sighed and opened his mouth, he knew there was no use arguing with kokichi. As soon as the cake came into contact with shuichi mouth one thing came to mind sweet, the cake didn't taste bad by any means but it was just a bit to sweet for shuichi 

"So what do you think saihara-chan huh huh good riiiight?" Kokichi just stared at shuichi with a big grin on his face.

'It's good but just a little to sweet for me"

"Gasp there's no such thing as too sweet saihara-chan. Now here try this too" kokichi passed his drink towards shuichi 

Shuichi took a small sip of the drink now realizing that when he called the cake sweet he was wrong compared to this drink the cake seemed normal in comparison… yeah this drink is way too sweet to drink. "Ouma-kun you actually like this drink? It's way to sweet"

"Whaa! Are you saying you don't like it, but it's so good it's like drinking grapes made out of sugar *sigh* you disappoint me saihara-chan you have no taste… oh well more for me!"

Shuichi chuckled a bit 'how could anyone like that, it's just too sugary *sigh* then again this is ouma-kun we're talking about he's not the most normal person out there.'  
"I think I'll just stick with tea ouma-kun, but thanks for letting me try some anyways."

"No problem my beloved saihara-chan" 

The two boy's ate the rest of their meal in peace. Despite the place looking a bit off Shuichi would definitely eat here again, the food was good, the owner was nice and even the bizarre blue torches made everything look more lovely.

Kokichi turned to shuichi as he downed his last bite of cake. "Alright saihara-chan I'm all done eating thanks for the meal, imma head home now and get some beauty sleep, so see ya" 

Kokichi got up from his seat but before he could take a step shuichi grabbed his arm. "Wait ouma-kun hold on!"

"Hmm wha?"

Shuichi scratched his head feeling embarrassed "uh… can you walk me home… i don't know how to get back"

Kokichi was having the time of his life as he watched the detectives get flustered and embarrassed, for Kokichi this was real entertainment right here, he couldn't help but tease him just a little. "Huuuh you don't know how to get back home? I kinda find that hard to believe saihara-chan if you just wanted to hang out with me more you should of just said so silly"

Shuichi quickly turned red as he tried to defend himself. "No-no it's not like that it's just that it's dark and we're in the middle of the forest so i just don't know how to get back home"

"Nishishi, I know I'm just teasing" kokichi grabbed shuichi's hand and led him back into the forest. "This was fun, we should do this again. Play a little game and then you buy me dinner"

"You're gonna eat me out of all of my money if i keep buying you food plus i have to solve this case, i can't keep playing games with you."

"Aww do i no longer excite you saihara-chan how mean and here i was thinking about more games we can play" kokichi slid closer to shuichi as they kept walking, his voice becoming deeper and coy "come on let's do more together" kokichi couldn't help but giggle a little as he saw the other go a little red "I'm not done playing with you yet"

Shuichi coughed trying to rid the redness from his face even if kokichi was probably just trying to mess with him he still wasn't used to people talking to him like that. "I can't keep playing with you ouma-kun i already told you i need to solve this case."

Kokichi gave Shuichi the best disappointed look that he could muster, his voice became whiny and sad "but saihara-channnnn you're the first detective I've ever met and if you don't play with me I'll get bored and lonely." Tears began to form around the small boy's eyes "WAAAHHHH saihara-chan hates me he wants me to die of boredom your so cruel saihara-chan."

Shuichi just sighed as he watched the others crocodile tears fall "ouma-kun i don't hate you. I came here to solve a case and that's what I'll do."

Kokichi's tears suddenly stopped, they were suddenly replaced with an evil look on his face, kokichi's voice came out darkly "y'know saihara i don't like being ignored... no matter how much you try to fight it I'll make sure you can't keep your mind off of me." As quick as a flash kokichi's devilish face disappeared, a joyful smile replacing it, his voice becoming bright and playful once more . "Welp here's your stop saihara-chan sweet dreams" kokichi ran back into the woods quickly disappearing from view.

Shuichi looked at the building in surprise. How did they get back so quickly? Shuichi made his way back inside the bathhouse and to his room. Worry plagued him as he layed in bed, he couldn't stop thinking about what kokichi was planning to do to him, he was starting to get a bit scared. He struggled to fall asleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Chapter 3 will be posted on Saturday dec 5th.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised here's the next chaper

The sun shone brightly through the window reaching shuichi and slowly waking him, but the boy refused to open his eyes, despite it being the middle of fall his bed felt warm and comfy. He could feel the weight of his cat laying on him giving him extra warmth, his cat often slept on him during the colder seasons so he was used to it. With his eyes still shut Shuichi went to pet the cat laying atop of him, until realization hit him. He wasn't at home, his cat shouldn't be here. Actually now that he thinks about it the thing laying on him feels too big to be a cat. What the hell was on him then!? With adrenaline now rushing through his body Shuichi snapped open his eyes, when he did he could see glimmering purple eyes staring back at him.

"Moooorning sleepy head" 

"O-ouma-kun?" 

kokichi moved his face away from shuichi's to give him some space but he still sat atop of the other's torso "Neehehe, the one and only" 

Shuichi didn't try to push the boy off, he just stared at him in confusion. "ouma-kun what are you doing in my room?"

Kokichi began to bat at the piece of hair that stood at the top of Shuichi's head, a sly grin spread across his face. "dont you remember saihara-chan i told you that I wanted to keep your mind on me, sooo I've decided to help you with your investigation."

Shuichi tried to swat kokichi's hand away from his hair but to no avail, while giving him a look that said I know you're up to something.

"Aww saihara-chan what's with that look?" kokichi began to pout "do you think I'm going to do something bad to you?" Tears began to well up in his eyes "my beloved saihara-chan you don't *sniff* trust me!?!? How mean WAAAAAH!!" 

Shuichi didn't even bat an eye as he watched the other ball his eyes out, he was getting used to the other's sudden mood changes.*sigh* "ok ouma-kun you can help me but if you do anything to sabotage the case I'm kicking you out."

Kokichi's face instantly lit up "don't worry saihara-chan you won't regret this we're gonna have lots of fun"

'You telling me not to worry is making me even more worried *sigh*' Shuichi tried to get up but kokichi wouldn't budge "uh hey ouma-kun can you get off of me now please" 

Kokichi gave a sly grin and one last flick to Shuichi's hair before he got up and off of the blue haired boy. "so saihara-chan what are we gonna do first, hmm?"

"Uh how about we eat some breakfast first?"

"Breakfast? But it's the middle of the afternoon saihara-chan"

'What!' Shuichi quickly shot to the window to look outside, he saw that what kokichi had said had been true. The sun was well above the horizon, a sure sign that it was mid afternoon. Shuichi began to go into panic mode, he quickly brushed his hair and grabbed his stuff. "How did I sleep in so late? I never sleep in!" he was saying this more to himself than to kokichi.

"Huh don't you remember saihara-chan me and you stayed up all night long~ <3" kokichi laughed a little as he watched shuichi grow red while he desperately tried to make his bed as quickly as possible.

Shuichi coughed trying to rid the blush from his face. "first off never say that again especially like that and second I never sleep in not even when I've stayed up all night. What happened?"

Kokichi just shrugged "i dunno know"

Shuichi quickly grabbed his stuff then Kokichi's hand and made his way down the stairs "come on we have to hurry and eat then we'll go into town and do some investigation, ok?"

Before Kokichi could get a word in, both boys found themselves standing in the dining room, startling Saru who was in the middle of chopping vegetables up. 

After she calmed down from the sudden surprise she gave both boys a polite smile. "ah saihara-kun you're finally up and you brought a friend."

Shuichi just averted his eyes away from her and fiddled with his necklace "yeah sorry he kinda of just showed up" 

Saru just giggled as she spoke "no it's ok any friend of yours is welcomed here." She turned to Kokichi and began to introduce herself. "my name is Fujioji Saru." As the woman spoke she looked over kokichi, her eyes instantly became drawn to the jewel that hung from his necklace, a pearl like sphere that looked as though it held a dark purple flame within it. A small smirk came upon her face as she spoke to the short boy once more "I like your necklace" 

Kokichi reflexively grabbed his necklace in defence as if he were protecting it. He began to glare at the woman.

Saru just chuckled in response "oh don't worry you don't have to be scared I won't do anything. Look I even have something similar to it." Saru pulled back her hair revealing an earing with a similar jewel on it, however the purple within this jewel was a lot lighter, that of a lavender color. 

A flash of realization shot across kokichi's face but only for an instant before he covered it up with a smile his body became relaxed once more "Nishishi it's nice to meet you Fujioji-chan, I'm ouma kokichi and I think your earings are nice too." Kokichi began to giggle

Saru giggled along with Kokichi as though they were sharing jokes with each other. The whole exchange was confusing Shuichi, the two seemed to be sharing a secret between each other. 

Saru must have seen the look of confusion on shuichi's face because she stopped laughing and began to speak to him "saihara-kun you must be hungry I'm almost done making lunch please you and ouma-kun should take a seat"

Shuichi was still pondering the strange exchange Saru and Kokichi had with one another, but nevertheless he still took a seat at the table, Kokichi followed suit. Shuichi made a mental note to ask kokichi what had just happened between him and saru.

Shuichi sat at the table and listened to Saru hum to herself as she cooked and watched as kokichi pulled a piece of paper out and began to doodle. The boy took this moment of peace to think to himself however the moment was gone far too soon. A loud gasp of shock came from the doorway, Kaito soon came barreling in stopping in front of kokichi with an accusatory finger 

"YOU!" The tall boy's voice boomed in the once quiet dining room "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" 

Kokichi didn't even flinch at the much taller boy that loomed over him, Shuichi wouldn't admit this out loud but he was kind of impressed, if it was Kaito yelling at him like that he knew he would become an anxious mess. 

With a calm face kokichi simply looked up at kaito "wow momota-chan you shouldn't speak so quietly like that I almost didn't hear what you said." The statement seemed to piss off kaito even more, kokichi just shrugged. "if you must know I'm here to help saihara-chan with his investigation, we're just eating lunch and we'll be on our way, kay."

"WHAT!?!" Kaito turned to Shuichi desperate for answers. "why did you ask for help from the gremlin bro he'll just get in the way" 

Before shuichi could answer, kokichi began to speak once more "get in the way *gasp* I would never do such a thing momota-chan"

Kaito rolled his eyes at that "that's the biggest lie of the century"

Kokichi gave an evil look to kaito "are you calling me a liar? Saihara-chan believes me" the evil look washed away from kokichi's face as he turned to the blue haired boy "you believe me dontcha saihara-chan."

Shuichi tried to avoid the puppy eyed look Kokichi was giving him, but it was no use. Shuichi just gave in with a sigh "I think we should at least give him a chance, if he does anything bad we can just kick him off the case."

Kaito didn't look pleased at all but he still agreed to let kokichi help. The tall boy then took a seat at the table on the other side of shuichi. He made sure to give kokichi one last glare before pulling out a few pieces of paper and handing it to shuichi. 

"What's this momota-kun?"

"Fujioji-san told me to give this to you, apparently talk of your investigation has been spreading like fire around the village, so people have been stopping by and telling Fujioji-san about how they've been getting pranked and basically any other clues they think might help, you've been asleep so he wrote it all down for you."

"Oh no I'm so sorry, I better go apologize to Fujioji-san for inconveniencing him like that."

Shuichi quickly got up but was sent back down by kaito. "Calm down calm down, it's no big deal actually if anything this has been a big help for business."

"Uh really?"

"Yeah we were basically able to convince everyone who stopped by to either buy some food or buy some time in the bathhouse or hot springs, we've made a lot of money today. So if anything we should be thanking you. 

Shuichi had a small smile on his face, compliments always made him feel a bit embarrassed. "I'll still have to thank Fujioji-san for writing this all down, this will be a big help for the case. 

"Well you're going to have to wait on that he just left to get more supplies for the shop. Just look over the paper and see if you can find any clues."

Shuichi was a bit disappointed to hear that he couldn't say his thanks right away but he pushed that feeling away as he looked at the first piece of paper.

.The baker- on 9/15 all his sweets had been stolen in one night however there had been no evidence of a break in.  
.The librarian- on 9/15 all here book covers had a picture of a Fox's face on it, but when she touched the book the image disappeared.  
.The blacksmith-on 9/16 early morning all his metal had disappeared then suddenly appeared out of thin air

"..." Shuichi hardly read even half of the page and he was already at a loss for words, two of these statements were just impossible, things don't just disappear then suddenly reappear.

Before Shuichi could dwell too much on what he had just read Saru walked into the dinning room holding 3 plates of food, she passed each boy a plate of food as she spoke. "Here you go boys, eat up and if you want seconds there's more in the kitchen. I'll be in the bathhouse area if you need me." 

Once the woman was out of sight kokichi leaned towards shuichi and whispered in his ear "this place is a bathhouse?" 

Shuichi gave him a confused look before answering. "Uh yeah… you didn't know?"

Kokichi shook his head in response "mmm nope I've only seen your room saihara-chan. All I know is that momota-chan works here and I refuse to interact with him unless I'm pranking him. Plus I just assumed he'd just kick me out if I ever walked in here."

"Wait wait but the sign on the building says hana bathhouse. Even if you've never been in here you should still be able to tell that this is a bathhouse… are you lying again."

Kokichi shrugged with a giggle "who knows. All I know is that for our next date you better take me to the hot spring's here." 

*sigh* "ouma-kun I told you already we have to focus on this case we can't be slacking off." 

Kokichi gave a dramatic pout and just ate his food without another word. Kokichi was silent for the rest of the meal while kaito and shuichi talked about the case. According to Kaito no pranks were pulled last night, shuichi made sure to make a note of this information. 

After eating, kaito went back to work and Shuichi and kokichi made their way to the front of the bathhouse. As Shuichi walked past the front desk he saw Saru talking to a green haired boy. The boy did a quick glance of him and Kokichi before doing a double take then looking eyes with kokichi.

"Ouma-kun is that you?" The green haired boy made his way to kokichi a soft smile on his face.

Kokichi ran up to the boy and gave him a tight hug "Amami-chan! What's my favorite water boy doing here?" 

The boy gave him a light pat in response "I'm here for the festival of course."

Kokichi tilted his head in confusion "Uh but amami-chan the festival is like week's from now."

"Ah well you see I've been given the job to help set up the place. The festival is going to be really big this year so it's going to be a lot of work. So why are you here so early?"

Kokichi rolled his eyes at the question and began to admire his nails "Eh y'know there's some stuff i need to do here and there. Really the details don't matter, what matters right now is you haven't met my new friend saihara-chan he's a detective." 

"Ah yeah sorry I've been so rude I haven't even introduced myself yet. Hi I'm amami Rantaro." 

"ah I'm Saihara Shuichi."

"So you're a detective right? That's pretty cool, I know that ouma-kun has always wanted to meet one. I hope he's not giving you too much trouble."

shuichi's words came out fast and clumsy.  
"Ah w-well I'm not an actual detective i-I'm just an apprentice" 

Rantaro let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry about it man, I'm sure you'll become a full detective soon. Hehe I bet you get a lot of practice with ouma-kun as your friend."

Shuichi rubbed his neck still feeling a bit nervous. "heh yeah he does keep me on my toes."

"Hey are you and Saru Fujioji-san going to the festival?"

Saru was the one to speak up. "Ah no I'm not...plus I don't think you should be talking about this right now" she did a quick glance to shuichi as she said this last part. Rantaro must have understood what this meant because he immediately dropped the subject. 

Shuichi couldn't help but feel as though something was being kept from him. A secret that saru, kokichi and now rantaro all seemed to know. It all seemed suspicious to shuichi. 

Shuichi didn't have much time to think to himself before Kokichi spoke up again. An exaggerated surprised look was on his face. "wait amami-chan you know this woman!?!" 

"Hehe yeah my family would often bump into her when we came to visit this village. This is your first time here right ouma-kun so you've must have never met her before. She's the same as you." Rantaro gave Kokichi a knowing wink at this last statement then continued to speak casually. "she used to be a lot more crazy back then."

Saru just waved her hand and softly giggled "ah well y'know i guess marriage has really changed me..."

Shuichi stopped listening to the conversation after that he was too busy stuck on what Rantaro had said earlier. 'She's like you? What does amami-kun mean by that? What does ouma-kun and Saru Fujioji-san have in common? And why do they have similar looking jewelry?! And what's with this whole festival thing!?!'

"Yo earth to saihara-chan!" Kokichi snapped his fingers pulling Shuichi out of his train of thought.

"Ah s-sorry I wasn't listening" 

Kokichi just rolled his eyes and repeated himself. "are we going to do some investigating or are we gonna stand here all day chatting about nothing."

"Ah sorry yeah we should probably be heading out now before it gets dark." Shuichi quickly gave his goodbyes to rantaro and saru and rushed out the door with Kokichi following close behind.

The two boys made their way to the west side of the village, Shuichi hadn't been able to investigate there before. It didn't take long for the two to find a clue. In this instance the clue was graffiti on a shop front. 

Shuichi could see an elderly man trying to clean up a giant picture of a purple fox that had been painted on his store front. 'More fox imagery hmm…'

Shuichi waved his hands trying to catch the attention of the old man. "Uh excuse me sir may I have a word with you please?"

The old man slowly climbed down the ladder before talking to shuichi "eh what do you want and who are you?"

Shuichi gave the elder a bow before speaking "I'm Saihara Shuichi, I'm trying to figure out who's been doing these pranks, please answer my questions so I can get closer to the truth."

The old man looked Shuichi up and down before speaking. "If you want to ask me a bunch of questions then help me clean this paint off while we talk"

"Uh yes sir" shuichi quickly grabbed a cloth and began to scrub at the paint "um ok so uh do you know how this happened?"

The man stood next to shuichi as he too scrubbed at the walls "I wasn't here when it happened, but I did have one of my workers on watch that night. It was two days ago in the middle of the night. He told me that he left to go get some food from inside, he said he was only gone for about 3 minutes then boom this stupid painting showed up."

'How could anyone paint this in 3 minutes…' "Have you been pranked before this, sir?"

"No. As soon as the pranks started I made sure someone was always watching the store 24/7. I've learned from the past so I know how to handle this, my methods worked in the past and they worked up until now."

"Hmm what do you mean that you've learned from the past?"

"Ah yeah you young folk must not have remembered but this isn't the first time to happen. Years ago a mysterious figure would mess with the town's folk, pulling pranks and such for a week and then vanishing. This happened every fall, but they stopped a long time ago."

"So the events happening right now also happened years ago too?"

"Well not exactly there are a few differences, first of all these pranks are a lot bigger and crazier, no human could ever pull some of this stuff off. Like how the hell were they able to throw my neighbors chicken coop to the top of the west watchtower and in one night no less. Hmph and plus back in the day the pranks only lasted for a week, but it's almost been a whole month now!"

Shuichi could hear kokichi giggling to himself but he tried his best to ignore it. He simply got up and put the rag down "thank you for your time sir I think that's all the questions I have for you now"

Before shuichi could leave the old man stopped him. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Uh to look for more clues?" Shuichi was in a hurry, he was losing daylight fast. The sun never stayed out long enough during these colder seasons.

"Hmph, well you're not going anywhere until we finish cleaning this mess up. Haven't your parents taught you not to quit in the middle of a job" 

"Uh well ah um.."

Kokichi soon busted into laughter "well i guess that's the end of our investigation for today saihara-chan. see ya later." The boy was out of sight in an instant.

Shuichi was stuck trying to clean the paint off for the rest of the day but no matter how hard he or the old man scrubbed, it never came off, until suddenly all at once the whole picture magically disappeared. If it didn't happen right in front of him, shuichi wouldn't have believed it. 'It must have been disappearing ink. It must have been disappearing ink' he kept repeating those words in his head as he made his way back to the bathhouse.

Once he entered the building he could see Fujioji-san sitting on one of the waiting room chairs, a tired look was on his face, but once he spotted shuichi all signs of exhaustion vanished and was replaced with a confident smile. "Saihara-kun how's the investigation been going?"

Shuichi couldn't look him in the eyes. "Not so good I haven't been able to get much done. The only useful thing I've learned today is whichever group did this must be really good at magic tricks and that this isn't the first time the village has been bombarded by pranks."

"This isn't the first time? It must have been a long time ago because I don't remember anything like this happening before… hmm Oh! I know." The man got up from the chair and pulled a large book from behind the counter. "Here take this book."

Shuichi took the large book from the man's hands, it looked quite old "uh what's this?"

"That my dear boy is a copy of the town's history, it's updated each year. We keep it here for tourists, some of them just love learning the village's history. If you need to know anything about the village's past this book has the answers." 

"Ah thank you so much I promise to take good care of it." 

It was a bit of a hassle carrying the giant book up the stairs. Once in his room Shuichi immediately cracked open the book, as he flipped through the many many pages the boy was left wishing he had asked the old man what year the first prankings occurred, the boy had no idea where to start. 

He decided to scan through the first few pages he knew that they probably had nothing to do with the case but he couldn't lie he was a bit curious on how the village was first founded, Shuichi had always been a bit curious when it came to history. 

As Shuichi read he was a little disappointed the first few pages only told myths of the founder being led by a path of glowing petals and stumbling on a group of spirits and yokai who showed him where to start the town. Shuichi hoped the rest of the book wasn't just made up tales and myths.

The boy decided he should use his free time more productively and got out the sheets of paper kaito had given to him earlier. 

Most of peoples accounts sounded like normal everyday pranks but there were a few odd ones too. People's stuff floating in mid air, strange images appearing and disappearing, strange lights appearing and many more things like that. Shuichi was jumping through mental hoops trying to find an explanation for them all. It all had to just be tricks, smoke and mirrors that's the only explanation.

It was safe to say Shuichi was questioning reality as he lay awake in bed. 'It all must be a trick' that was the last thought he had before sleep took him in.


	4. Chapter 4

As Shuichi rose from his sleep the pattering of rain filled his ears. The sound of rain always soothed Shuichi, the boy felt quiet calm and well rested. As he made his way out of his room and down the stairs he passed by Rantaro who apparently was staying in room 4 now, the room right next to Shuichi's. The green haired boy was asking Shuichi if he had seen his ocean blue bag anywhere. Shuichi simply shook his head and told him he hadn't seen it anywhere.

Shuichi said his goodbyes to Rantaro and made his way to the dining room, it was a separate room from the bathhouse so he wouldn't be running into any of the other residents while there. Like always he was greeted by the couple that lived there, he ate his breakfast and waited for Fujioji-san  
to leave. Once the man was gone Shuichi turned to the woman still seated at the table.

"Uh Saru Fujioji-san can i ask you a question?" Shuichi's hands were back on his necklaces, a nervous tick he needed to get out of.

Saru gave an innocent smile as she spoke "Sure dear what is it?"

"Uh what was that whole thing with you and ouma-kun and what did amami-kun mean by you two were the same?"

"Hmm the same? Well I guess you could say me and ouma-kun come from the same clan of sorts it's really not that important… oh my look at the time i must really be going to work right now. Bye saihara-kun" and with that the lavender haired woman was gone.

'Yeah that was definitely suspicious, I'll have to question ouma-kun about this when i see him… wait where is ouma-kun i thought he would be here by now…hmmm I'll check the woods for him real quick' with that final thought the boy made his way to the front door but stopped when he saw that kaito was at the front desk.

"Ah momota-kun good morning" 

"Ah morning, did you find out anything new for the case."

"Well I did find out the village used to be pranked in the past, but that was years ago. "

"Hmm that's interesting, *sigh* I wish I was able to help you investigate today man, but I don't think I can, we've been really busy lately, we always get super busy right around the beginning of fall."

Shuichi just nodded his head in understanding. "That's right because of the festival and the tsuki flowers blooming."

"Huh festival? flowers? We don't have any town festivals until late October and what do you mean tsuki flowers, those are just a myth." 

"But ouma-kun told me about all that, he said the festival was in early October and he made it seem like the tsuki flower was a real thing."

"Tsk typical, that little gremlin was just messing with you. Hmph that guy is such a liar you shouldn't believe anything he says."

Shuichi was feeling really stupid for easily falling for one of kokichi's lies it was embarrassing "Uh yeah I guess you're right. I'll try not to let him trick me again."

"Don't let him get to you saihara-kun, he tricks everyone just learn from your mistakes and get up and try again… oh yeah i almost forgot I'm free on Saturday and Sunday so I'll finally be able to help you. Isn't that great!"

Shuichi tried to laugh off his embarrassment. "Hehe yeah it's always better to have others help with a case. ok I'm headed to the forest now see you later Momota-kun"

"Ah wait man it's still raining here take this umbrella"

Shuichi was grateful to have kaito, he always kept him in high spirits and was always so helpful. "Ah thank you momota-kun." With umbrella now in hand Shuichi made his way to the forest.

_______________________

Shuichi had walked up and down the trail of the forest twice now and kokichi was still nowhere in sight and the rain was starting to come down really hard now and it was getting very cold now. At this point the boy only had two choices, either go deeper into the forest or give up, the first choice could be potentially dangerous seeing as he was very unfamiliar with this forest he could get lost or run into a wild animal. The best choice he concluded is just go back, maybe kokichi will show up later. 

"AHHHHHH"

'That sounded like ouma-kun!' Shuichi ran as quickly as his feet would let him, deep into the forest he went. He jumped over logs and dodged past trees as he ran, he couldn't hear screaming anymore, he desperately scanned the area for any sign of kokichi. Finally he spotted the boy kneeling on the ground next to a large tree, he seemed very distressed.

Shuichi quickly ran towards the smaller one. "Ouma-kun are you ok!"

Kokichi quickly turned around a sad look on his face "saihara-chan!" A bright smile immediately drew across his face "saihara-chan hurry come here before my house gets flooded… well more"

"Uh your house?" Shuichi looked the boy over, thankfully he seemed unharmed, but as he looked more closely he saw that a large hole was next to him...was this his supposed to be his home? " ... ouma-kun that's a hole… actually if anything that looks like a Fox's den"

*gasp* "saihara-chan are you saying you don't like my home. hmph, how stuck up. I worked really hard to make this y'know, you offend me." Kokichi did in fact look offended and it looked very genuine. 

The look was turning shuichi into a stuttering mess of apologise. He really didn't mean to offend kokichi. Kokichi was probably just lying to Shuichi again, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Kokichi just rolled his eyes as shuichi continued to stutter out apologise "yeeesh look if you want to show that you're really sorry then grab that bucket and help me"

"Uh yeah ok" Shuichi set down his umbrella and grabbed one of the many buckets next to kokichi. With the lack of protection Shuichi was soaked by the heavy rain, but he didn't mind, he just tried his best to stop the rain from reaching kokichi's supposed home. "Umm ouma-kun is this really where you live?"

"Of course not silly this is just my vacation home, I already told you I don't live in this village" 

"Uh that's a lie right?"

"Nope not a lie, here once we're done making this moat and get washed up I'll show you around."

"If you actually have a house down there I'll be really surprised." 

An evil look flashed on kokichi's face "wanna bet on it huh?"

"...Umm no" 

"Aww you give up way too fast. no fun."

"Hehe, well I'm not taking my chances, I'm not an idiot. Let's just focus on saving your supposed home"

_______________________

After digging through the mud and getting pelted by rain the two boys finally finished their job. Both were drenched in water and mud.

Kokichi tried his best to flick the mud of his hands. "phew I can't believe that stupid dumb bimbo was able to trick me, oh she'll pay for this alright."

Shuichi tried his best to wipe the mud off his clothes, it wasn't very effective. "Uh ouma-kun what the heck are you talking about."

"Oh there's this stupid girl I know, she told me that it never rains here during the fall season only snow, hmph but there's been no snow...maaan and i packed all these winter clothes for nothing. Anyways that's why I dug the hole this way, i thought i didn't have to take into account rain… hmph that little tramp is gonna get it when I see her again."

"Ouma-kun should you really be talking about your friend like that even if she tricked you."

"Huh but all i said was true, don't worry you'll probably get to meet her soon and you'll see that I'm right."

"Even if you are right ouma-kun you still shouldn't say it."

Kokichi just waved his hand at shuichi. "Yeah yeah it's rude and mean and all that but trust me you'll understand once you meet her… hmmm welp I'm tired of being covered in mud imma go get this cleaned off now."

Shuichi followed Kokichi close behind. "You know a place where we can get washed?"

"...Are you for real?I thought you were smarter than this."

"What do you mean? It wasn't a weird question to ask."

Kokichi just rolled his eyes. "oh my gods you are the smartest idiot I know."

"What? what did I say?"

"You're really gonna make me say it aren't you? Saihara-chan. you. are. staying. in. a. bathhouse!" 

Shuichi internally facepalmed. How could he be so stupid he completely forgot that he was staying at a bathhouse. He tried his best to laugh it off. "Hehe yeah I guess it slipped my mind."

*sigh* "come on you idiot, let's go get washed up." Kokichi grabbed shuichi's hand but shuichi wouldn't move. 

"Wait we can't go just yet ouma-kun let's at least try and clean some of this mud off of ourselves first or else we'll get the whole place dirty."

"Hmm fine… let's see we can take a dunk in the river to get some of this mud off."

"Wait but it's been raining pretty hard so the river is going to be flowing really fast we might get swept away." 

"Oh yeah I totally forgot you don't have the strength to fight the river current. Fine, give me your clothes, I'll wash them in the river."

"O-ouma-kun we can just tie some rope to the buckets and just use that to get water." Shuichi would rather die than be stuck in the cold forest naked. 

Kokichi rolled his eyes, took off his coat and rolled up his pants, he then made his way down the hole. "Fine, have it your way."

"Wait ouma-kun you're actually going down that hole." Shuichi sat at the entrance of the hole as he watched kokichi go down further and further.

"Uh duh, I told you this is my house. I have some rope down here. I'll show you around when you're not covered in mud. Kay." 

"There's no way you're telling the truth ouma-kun I mean it just looks like a Fox's den."

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU TO FAR DOWN"

"Hmph... JUST HURRY UP AND GRAB THE ROPE."

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING." After a couple of minutes kokichi resurfaced rope in hand.

With everything they needed at hand both boys made their way to the river, even with their clothes on the water was freezing to the bone, they weren't able to clean all the mud off but it was good enough.

Both boys were shivering and shaking on their way to the bathhouse, Shuichi couldn't help but think they should have really thought this plan through more. It didn't take long to reach the place but it sure felt like it did. 

Saru was the one standing at the front desk "oh my what happened to you both?"

Kokichi was the one to answer her "my vacation home was flooding so we had to build a moat around it"

With chattering teeth Shuichi was the one to speak next "th-that wasn't a house i-it was a hole."

"A hole?" Saru asked 

Kokichi answered, excitement in his voice. "Yup it's like my secret base, built it myself.

"Oh my ouma-kun but humans aren't supposed to live in holes they live in houses." Saru looked troubled as she said this.

Kokichi looked like he was about to argue but Shuichi spoke up before he could. "Yeah ouma-kun it's not safe to stay there, especially now after it's rained it might collapse on you."

Kokichi looked kinda miffed now "hmph I built that place myself it won't collapse that easily plus where else am I supposed to stay if not there."

"Hmm why not here?" Saru said without hesitation "all for free up until the end of October you just have to promise to behave while you're here."

Kokichi seemed to be thinking it through then he slowly began to talk "...hmm that does sound like a good offer, but what about when I'm in town do I still have to behave?"

"Nope" 

"Alright I'm in!… wait what's the catch?"

"Oh no catch just consider it a good deed between clan mates." Saru's smile was soft and innocent like always. "Now now you two should go take a shower, just leave your clothes in the basket and I'll wash them with the rest… oh and here's your room key, room 5 ok. "

With a smile on his face Kokichi quickly grabbed the keys and ran towards the shower area, dragging Shuichi behind him. There were a couple of other guys there but all of them were on the other side of the room. Once kokichi found an empty stall he began to strip with no hesitation. Shuichi turned around fast to avoid seeing him naked. 

"Heeey saihara-chan aren't ya gonna get naked too you can't take a shower like that y'know" kokichi was fully naked now and peaking out at shuichi from one of the stalls.

"i i know that... I just don't like being naked in front of others, ok, I'll take my clothes off once I'm in the stall." Shuichi was still trying to avoid seeing anyone naked.

"Wow have you ever been inside a bathhouse? You do know it's normal to see other guy's naked here right?"

"I know it's normal, l it's just I'm really shy."

"What You shy!?! I would have never guessed you of all people to be shy. Pshh you really need to work on your confidence, maybe ask momota-chan for help, being confident is the only thing he's good at. 

Shuichi still had his back to kokichi but was nodding along to what he said. "Yeah ok I'll do that." 

*sigh* "well I'm not going to force you to do anything. I'll just be taking my shower now byeee" and with that kokichi disappeared into the stall. 

Shuichi walked to another empty stall, he was grateful that kokichi didn't tease him too much or pushed him to do anything he didn't want to do. Shuichi took his shower as quickly as he could. Thankfully there were clean bathrobes hung up on each stall door, Kokichi had dragged him into the bathhouse so fast he'd completely forgotten to grab some clean clothes. As he stepped out of the stall he spotted kokichi who was also wearing a robe sitting on a bench staring up at the ceiling.

Kokichi still stared up at the ceiling as he spoke. "About time slowpoke I was sitting here for hours."

"W-what but I took my shower as quickly as I could."

"Nehehe you're so easy to mess with. I was lying, I'm a liar y'know." Kokichi was now sitting up, his head tilted to the side, his voice came out sweetly. "Hey saihara-chan do you have any extra clothes I could borrow, I left mine all at home."

"Uh yeah but they might all be too big for you."

Kokichi just shrugged and made his way to shuichi's room, room 3. It wasn't a long walk.

"Alright alright where's your clothes?" Shuichi pointed towards the large backpack he had brought from home, "hmph you've been here for 5 days now and you haven't even unpacked yet, oh well whatever." Kokichi grabbed the bag and began to rifle through it, Shuichi didn't mind, he didn't really have much in there, only some clothes and basic camping/traveling gear. 

Kokichi seemed disappointed in the lackluster find, with a bored look on his face he stopped rifling through the bag and began to examine the clothes, most of them were basic solid blacks and blues, all the coats had a moon crest on them. all of the clothes were a bore, all but one it was a coat that faded to the colors of the sunset, a moon crest was on the upper right half of the back while a sun was on the lower left. Kokichi grabbed the coat and a white long sleeved button up shirt and black pants to go with it and made his way to his room to get dressed.

Shuichi took this time to himself to also get dressed going for his black button up shirt and black pants and blue black faded coat. It didn't take him long to dress which was good because it didn't take long for kokichi to barge back into the room but this time rantaro was behind him. 

The green haired boy was following close behind kokichi "come on ouma-kun I know that you stole my bag yesterday, I need that thing it has all my money."

Kokichi stared innocently at Rantaro. "What me? steal? I would never do such a thing, right saihara-chan?"

"When we first met you stole from me." Shuichi answered bluntly.

"Wow even my own beloved betrayed me… hmph well i didn't steal your bag amami-chan only just borrowed it for a bit. just like yours saihara-chan." Kokichi stuck his hand into shuichi's coat pocket and pulled out an ocean colored bag. "Here's your bag back, I don't need it anymore."

Shuichi was looking dumbfoundedly at kokichi. "H-how did you do that I just put this coat on." 

"Nishishi, what? didn't I ever tell you I can do magic? Oh well, must have slipped my mind."

Shuichi just rolled his eyes. 

Rantaro searched through his bag. "Ouma-kun if you're going to be doing stuff like this you better be careful who you do it to during the festival."

Kokichi's response was abruptly interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. Kokichi didn't give Shuichi time to answer before he ran to the door and opened it up himself.

"...shinguji-chan!" Kokichi had that teasing tone he often used right before messing with someone 

Shuichi leaned over to see who kokichi was talking to. At the door stood a tall slender boy, he wore a mask over his face, he seemed displeased being face to face with kokichi, but it was hard to tell exactly his mask was covering up half his face.

"Oh ouma-kun. I was told that this was supposed to be Saihara's room."

Shuichi stepped into view and stood next to kokichi. "I'm saihara."

Kokichi looked back and forth between the two "you two know each other?"

It was shinguji who answered. "No this is our first time meeting. The man at the front counter told me that a copy of the town's history book would be here, so i came here to see if i could borrow it."

"Oh yeah I still have it here let me go grab it." Shuichi went back into his room, while he was grabbing the book he could see rantaro saying hi to the new comer, the two seemed to know each other already. With the book in hand Shuichi walked back to the doorway standing right between kokichi and rantaro."here you go, shinguji-kun right?"

"Yes Shinguji korekiyo and thank you for lending me this precious literature."

"My name's Saihara Shuichi and it's really no problem, I might have to borrow it from you again later tonight though. I was only able to read the first few page's. Sadly it was only about myths and stuff."

"Kehehe, it's nice to see another who cares about history as i do but you're mistaken, I've read this book before and I can assure you everything within it is true." With that last ominous sentence the boy left, book in hand.

'All true?' Shuichi wasn't much to believe in the supernatural but the boy he had just spoken to seemed to fullhearty believe in it all. 

Kokichi closed the door and turned to Shuichi. "You should stay away from that guy."

Rantaro nodded in agreement. "Yeah that guy is kinda dangerous."

Shuichi looked at the two. "Dangerous? I mean i know he looks a bit creepy but he seems like a nice guy deep down."

Kokichi was messing with his nails, a devious smirk on his face. "I hear that he murders innocent girls." Kokichi looked up at Shuichi a cheeky grin now on his face. "Saihara-chan you're sooo pretty he might mistake you for a girl and kill you."

"O-ouma-kun don't say things like that plus none of that sounds true don't make up such terrible lies."

Rantaro put a hand on shuichi's shoulder and began to speak in a serious tone. "I'm not one to quickly judge people but I do think you should watch yourself when around that guy there's a lot of rumors going around…*sigh*... look i don't know if they're actually true but at least make sure ouma-kun is with you when talking to him, Just in case" Rantaros voice went back to normal as he said his goodbyes and left the room.

When the door closed Kokichi wrapped an arm around Shuichi's shoulders. "Soo, now that we're alone whatcha wanna do mr detective."

Shuichi couldn't help but be annoyed at how easy it was for kokichi to make him flustered. "Um... well right now I want to write some things down in my journal. I forgot to do that last night."

"Psh ok but we better do something fun when you're done." With that said kokichi crawled into the others bed wrapping himself in the blankets.

Shuichi didn't question what the other was doing he simply grabbed a pen and his journal and began to write. 

'9/22 I have learned that this isn't the first occurrence of the pranking, years ago pranks would occur for a whole week every fall, almost like a tradition. I have also found out that whichever group is responsible for the pranks often leaves behind imagery of foxes, Perhaps this is to pay homage to the kitsune the trickster fox gods 

...Actually now that Shuichi really thinks about it, all these pranks and fox imagery really does remind him of a kitsune… maybe whichever group is doing this is probably either trying to trick people into believing a Kitsune is behind this or perhaps they are trying to pay homage to the Kitsune. It would all make sense, from what shuichi has learned so far the village's history and culture is deeply intertwined with the supernatural… yeah maybe this whole pranking thing is like some kind of weird spiritual tradition for these people and it must have gotten out of hand or something... Hmm now that he really thinks about it it might also explain why kokichi was living in a foxes den or at least claiming to live in one...yeah that's it! He was just trying to trick shuichi into thinking he was a kitsune or something. Hmph well he wasn't going to fall for a trick that easily. Shuichi already had his suspicions but now he was a hundred percent sure that kokichi was part of the mysterious pranking group. Shuichi smiled to himself, he felt like he was getting closer to the end of this case.

"Yo, mr defective you done yet? you've been staring blankly for like ever, you're not even writing anymore."

"Huh oh yeah I'm done." Shuichi didn't know much about the supernatural but if he was to solve this case he needed more information about it, specifically he needed to know more about Kitsune. "Uh hey ouma-kun since it's still raining why don't we stay indoors, more specifically why don't we go to the library, I want to do more research on the villages past...yup."

"Wow the library that sounds like so much fun saihara-chan!" Kokichi's voice came out overly enthusiastic. 

"...yeah you're definitely lying"

"Hmm? maybe, maybe not. let's just go"

The two boys grabbed umbrellas and made their way through the storm, it took them a while to find the village's library. It was a small, almost empty building.

"Uh hey ouma-kun you like sweets right? Why don't you take this money and go buy us some treats from the bakery nearby." Shuichi needed the other to leave, he couldn't let him find out he was onto his little group of misfits. 

"Hmm we just got here and you're already hungry…hmm that's kinda weird…. *shrug* oh well never look a gift horse in the mouth. Oh well yoink. free snacks are free snacks. Byeeee."

Oh boy Kokichi was already getting suspicious, Shuichi needs to make sure to be extra careful around this boy. 

With kokichi now gone Shuichi made his way to the librarian. "Uh hey do you have any books on yokai more specifically on kitsunes."

"Ah the mythology type I see, yes go to aisle 6. That's where we keep all the mythology books."

Shuichi said his thanks and made his way to the aisle. The library was practically empty so he was surprised to see someone he knew standing at the end of the aisle. 

"Uh shinguji-kun is that you?"

The lengthy boy looked up from his book and met Shuichi's gaze. "Ah saihara-kun funny meeting you here again. What brings you here?"

Shuichi was a bit nervous being around the taller boy, after all both Rantaro and Kokichi told him to be careful around the guy. "Ah well i wanted to read up on some lore about yokai."

"Hmm yokai you say, i thought you didn't believe in such things."

"Ah well I don't but I still want to read more about them...uh and if you see him can you not tell ouma-kun about this… hehe it's kinda complicated."

"Don't worry I won't speak a word of this to that little cretin."

"Ah th-thank you shinguji-kun." With those final words Shuichi ended the conversation and began to look up and down the bookcase. It took him a while to find the book he needed, but he found it no less.

korekiyo watched as Shuichi pulled the book from it's spot with great interest. "Hmm a book about kitsunes. Kehehe, how interesting you must be the observant type."

Shuichi didn't know what he meant by that and he also didn't like how kiyo was getting excited at his choice of literature… maybe he's part of the mysterious group too, him and kokichi did seem to have a past. Kokichi most definitely is part of the mysterious group and anyone he knew must be too right? ...but the two didn't seem fond of each other...unless it was all just a rouse to trick others into thinking the two would never be in cahoots with each other… is it all just a rouse? Can Shuichi even trust anyone here!...wait why is he getting so worked up about this. He just needs to take a deep breath in and calm down…. Wait shit he spaced out again and hasn't responded to kiyo yet.

Shuichi's vision focused back to reality and saw that kiyo was still staring at him waiting for a response. "Hehe yup kitsunes they've always kinda interested me so like why not read a book about it…" god he's so awkward.

"Hmm yes some are quite majestic while others can be a bother…"

With nervousness written on his face Shuichi slowly backed away from the other. "Hmm yup yup that they are… welp I'm going to go read this book now bye!" Yup he was as smooth as a cactus. He really did hope Kiyo wasn't part of the pranking group because if he was it was obvious he was onto their little kitsune thing they had going on or whatever it was.

Shuichi grabbed another book that was similar size to the one he already had, it's cover had a drawing of a white flower and the title was, the tsuki flower. From what Shuichi found out over the past few days the tsuki flower was a legendary flower that bloomed every fall here in the forest. shuichi switched the tsuki flower book cover with the kitsune's book cover and hid the former in his coat. If anyone saw him it would look like he was reading a book about the tsuki flowers.

It wasn't long before kokichi came barging in with a bag full of sweets he took a seat next to shuichi and began stuffing his face with sweets. "So whatcha got there?"

Shuichi brough the book slightly closer to himself so that kokichi wouldn't be able to see the contents within it, but not too close to avoid suspicion. "Ah well I'm reading about the tsuki flowers, I heard they were a big part of the founding of this village."

Kokichi let out a dreamy sigh "the tsuki flowers i hear they're supposed to be really pretty… eh but i don't care about that kind of stuff all i care about is that they supposedly glow and if that's true they're officially not boring and anything not boring is worth my time." Kokichi's voice came out teasingly, he peeked up over the book and stared Shuichi in the eyes. "Soo are you going to go take me to see the pretty flowers saihara-chan~"

Shuichi couldn't understand why kokichi liked fake flirting with him so much. Did he do that with everyone? Either way shuichi never really knew how to respond to flirting even if it was just most likely all fake...right? "Uh but aren't they y'know just a myth or something."

"Nishishi, who knows~" Kokichi moved his gaze back to the bag of sweets and effectively ended the conversation.

Shuichi was able to focus back on his reading now that kokichi was occupied eating his sweets. 

The first few pages gave a basic explanation of kitsunes. There are basically two types of kitsune, the zenko and the yako, shuichi was more focused on learning about the latter. The yako are known as trickster fox gods who often transform into the form of a human and pull pranks on those around them. Apparently the yako are known for their illusionary magic. That might explain why many of the pranks were so focused on tricking people into thinking their stuff was disappearing and reappearing or floating in midair. Shuichi still had no idea how they managed to pull that off, probably something to do with mirrors and string he could ask them later when he finally catches them. Also according to the book when in human form all their power is held within a jewel like orb. That might explain kokichi's strange necklace, perhaps all members of the group wear jewelry like that, almost like a group uniform… but if that were true that means that saru would be a part of the group but then again that's not hard to believe she has been seemingly suspicious as of late. The final thing Shuichi learned was that there are several ways to cause a kitsune to partially lose it's human form. You can do it by scaring it, hurting it or getting it drunk. Shuichi deemed these last parts unimportant. Kitsune's don't actually exist so this last information was unimportant.

Shuichi wasn't able to finish reading the book by the time the sun began to sink below the horizon but to be fair he did stop often to take down notes and the book was a bit large. Shuichi turned and looked at kokichi if the boy were to have a spirit animal it would most certainly be a kitsune both were clever tricksters that loved mischief the two were perfect for eachother.

Kokichi complained when shuichi had told them it was time to leave. He said he needed to finish up his book town or else his subjects would be homeless. The two argued back and forth about the matter for a while before shuichi was finally able to convince kokichi to put all the books back after he promised the two would be able to go visit the bathhouse hot springs. The librarian was glaring at kokichi as they left the building.

The two made idle chatter as they walked back to the bathhouse. When shuichi wasn't in a hurry or looking for answers from him Kokichi was a really fun guy to talk to, he told shuichi how he wanted to visit Egypt and battle people using monsters, according to kokichi in Egypt they used giant monster and magical artifacts to duel each other it sounded all fake but kokichi was talking about it all so charmingly shuichi didn't care, it was just fun to listen to. When the two made it back home Shuichi continued to listen to the charming boy's ridiculous stories and lies. He was left wishing dinner wouldn't end but it did and the two had to part their ways and go to bed. Shuichi hoped he could hear more of kokichi's stories tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

"Psst hey saihara-chan hey wake up" kokichi was aggressively poking shuichi trying to wake him. 

"Hmphm"

"Hey hey if you don't wake up I'll throw a bucket of water on you"

Shuichi's eyes slowly blinked open. "Uhhhh?...ouma-kun? What time is it" his voice was heavily laced with tiredness

"Hmmm? I don't know, it's the middle of the night...maybe 2 or 3." 

Shuichi was groaning now, why in the world had Kokichi woken him up at such an ungodly hour. "What do you want ouma-kun? '' Shouldn't you be asleep.”

"Buuuut saihara-chan right now is the perfect time to hop into the hot springs. Everyone else is asleep. Cooooome ooooon you proooomised"

*sigh* Shuichi felt nothing but regret for making such a promise all he wanted was sleep right now. "Ouma-kun it's the middle of the night I'm tired, plus you know I don't like getting naked in front of others."

"Pshhh you can sleep later and plus just go in with your clothes on if you're really that shy."

"But I don't have a swimsuit with me"

Kokichi just rolled his eyes "oh my god just wear regular clothes. Here I'll even do it if it makes you feel better."

"...but wouldn't that be weird?"

"Who cares what's weird as long as we have fun it's ok, now come on you lazy head get up and move your ass we're going now."

It was no use trying to go back to bed it was clear that kokichi was determined to go to the hot springs, Shuichi staggered up and followed the boy out the room and to the back of the bathhouse he made sure to grab a couple of towels before going outside to where the hot spring was. 

"Ahhh~ isn't this nice saihara-chan we get to have a whole hot spring to ourselves for the night."

"... are hot springs really that nice?"

"Wait have you never been to one before?"

Shuichi shook his head "no going to public places like this makes me really anxious." He was looking at the ground avoiding eye contact.

Kokichi was staring at the floor deep in thought. "Hmm… well consider yourself lucky saihara-chan because I've decided to become your supreme leader! annnnd as my first act as your leader is to help you grow a backbone."

Shuichi didn't know how to take that, maybe Kokichi could really help him with his anxieties ...or maybe he was going to end up dying because of him. Having kokichi as his supreme leader didn't quite sound safe to shuichi. "...uh thanks?"

Both boys walked to the shower area rinsing themselves down before going outside and to the hot spring. The place was quiet and peaceful, the spring water was a lovely blue, flowers floated on the top of it, the clear sky reflecting itself on the pristine water. Shuichi would be admiring the beauty of it all if he wasn't busy focussing on how cold the night air was. 

Shuichi looked over the place, everything seemed natural and beautiful here except for one thing, an ovenlike thing was sitting next to the spring, a pile of wood sat next to it. "...uh what's that?" He pointed to the strange heating item as he spoke. 

"Oh that? That's just a heater, bathouse's use those during the colder seasons they help keep the water hot." Kokichi made his way to the oven like thing and tossed a couple of pieces of wood in. Before turning to shuichi once again "hey do you have any cards? It's gonna be a while for this to fully heat up."

"I think there's some in the kitchen we can borrow."

"Nice, go get them."

Shuichi went back inside without another word, it didn't take him long to find the cards which were sitting inside a drawer, with cards now in hand he went back outside, he could see kokichi sitting at the side of the spring, his feet in the water. "I'm back, here's the card's."

Kokichi looked up at him, a smile on his face, he patted at the ground next to him. "Take a seat here and let's play while we wait."

Shuichi took a seat and began to shuffle the cards. The two boys played a couple of games, Kokichi winning all of them, as they continued on Shuichi was starting to suspect the other of cheating. When he questioned kokichi about it he just waved him off and told him to add more wood to the heater.

Shuichi just rolled his eyes and did what he was asked. He'll prove that kokichi was cheating later. As the boy walked over to the heater he was thinking over how his game with kokichi had gone. In their first game it looked like shuichi was going to win until all of a sudden kokichi drew a king causing him to win the game, Shuichi opened the heater and threw some wood into it, his focus still on remembering the card game. Now drawing a king once wasn't suspicious but what was suspicious was how each game was ending with kokichi drawing a king and shuichi drawing a joker, each and every game, now that's totally suspicious. Shuichi threw another piece of wood in causing the flames within the heater to jump out and snapping him out of his train of thought,   
The boy was so lost in thought he didn't notice how much wood he'd had been adding, he was about to run to kokichi and warn him not to get into the hot spring but it was too late he could see the other boy throwing off his shirt and jumping into the water.

The short boy sunk deep into the water a content look on his face. "Yo saihara-chan get in, the water is nice and warm now! Ah~"

"No kokichi get out. I accidentally added too much wood, you'll burn yourself. " shuichi ran towards the smaller boy.

"Pshh i don't care this feels nice plus I can handle really hot stuff."

"..." kokichi continued to sit in the water unfazed, maybe he really did have a high tolerance for heat.

Kokichi had his eye's closed as he soaked in the warmth of the water. "Mmm so warm and hot. Ah~… see saihara-chan it's all ok, it's perfectly nice and warm… warm...wow it's really getting hot now... like really really hot... H-HOT HOT!" Kokichi quickly jumped out of the water then suddenly a puff of smoke appeared around his head. 

Shuichi ran towards the boy to make sure he was ok, as Shuichi looked him over the boy seemed ok, just slightly red, The sudden puff of smoke was starting to disappear too. Shuichi looked up to where the smoke had been, he thought it was weird for smoke to suddenly just appear, but all his thoughts suddenly stopped when he took a closer look at kokichi's head, shuichi could now see ears sticking out at the top of Kokichi's head,... pointy animal ears to be exact. "......uh.." Shuichi was at a loss for words, everything in his mind had stopped working. 

"..." Kokichi just stared Shuichi in the face like a deer caught in headlights. Suddenly the boy began to laugh joyfully. "IT'S A LIE! NEHEHE."

"..." Shuichi just stared at him. What in the world was happening!? had Kokichi really just sprouted a pair of ears? Was the boy just messing around and it was all fake… it sure as hell didn't look fake. Shuichi didn't know what to believe anymore.

"Just calm down saihara-chan I'm just pranking you these aren't real." Shuichi didn't respond, he was too busy watching the other's ears.

After a few seconds of silence Shuichi finally spoke out softly. "...a prank?"

Kokichi had a sly look on his face. "Yup just a little ol lie that's all."

Shuichi slowly closed his eyes, then looked to the boy next to him. His voice barely came out as a whisper. "...but that's a lie isn't it?" Shuichi was looking Kokichi in the eyes now. Kokichi could see fear, confusion, realization all within the other's eyes. "...ouma-kun your not human are you?"

"..." Welp he was caught, no use hiding it now might as well go all the way then. "Hmm? Not human?... Well I guess the cat's out of the bag. Nehehe, now that you know my secret I have to kill you now."

“w-what!?!”

Kokichi took a threatening step towards Shuichi, who began to back away, fear on his face. Kokichi kept advancing towards him only stopping when the other tripped and fell to the ground, he bent down so that he could be at eye level with shuichi who was now on the ground. Kokichi's voice came out soft and smoothly. "But that's a lie~" 

Kokichi moved away from the other and casually made his way back indoors. Shuichi didn't try to stop him. Shuichi just sat on the ground, he needed time to process this all. 

_____________________

Kokichi sat in his room, he couldn't decide if he was happy or not. On one hand Shuichi knowing his secret made things easier, now he could use his powers in front of the other and he also didn't have to fully hide his true form from him either. But on the other hand shuichi had looked completely scared to find out the truth, maybe he hated kokichi now, maybe he was going to tell the rest of the village and they were all going to try and hunt him down. Kokichi didn't really mind being hunted down, no normal human could ever catch him, but it would be kinda sad to lose a friend and have to leave the village. 

Kokichi loosened his transformation a bit more, his ears, tail, fangs and claws were now visible. Being in this half form was always more comfortable to him then being in a full human form, probably because he was still so young, heck most kitsune under the age of 100 weren't able to transform so it was still impressive that kokichi could do it at all. 

The boy paced back and forth in his room he was maybe just a tiny bit nervous. His ears twitched picking up the sound of footsteps going up the stairs, as the sound grew closer to his room he could easily tell it was shuichi. Kokichi waited for the knock at his door that was surely going to come. 

*knock knock* and just like he predicted there it was. Kokichi didn't try going back to his full human form, he just opened the door and willed a smile to his face. 

Shuichi stopped for a moment and looked over kokichi's new half form. When he was finished taking in the new sight he took a deep breath in, his voice had little confidence to it. "So you really aren't human huh?"

Kokichi just smiled and answered happily. "Mmmm nope! I'm far greater than a human."

"And you're a kitsune right?"

"Yyyyyup!"

"And yokai, ghosts and spirits all actually exist?"

"Right again mr detective."

Shuichi put a hand to his head like he had a headache.

Kokichi's smile was still bright but his voice spoke coldly now. "So do you hate me now mr detective?"

Shuichi jumped a little in surprise, his words came out fast. "N-no of course not ouma-kun!... it's just a lot to process, I mean I've never believed in the supernatural and now everything i thought was true just turned out to be a lie."

"Nehehe see this is why I like lies so much because they can help you hide great surprises, without lies there would be no surprises."

Shuichi looked very tired now "I don't think my heart can handle another surprise like this… WAIT! I just realized if you're really a kitsune then that means you are really the one pulling all those pranks, with your powers you wouldn't need other people's help."

Kokichi stared at the other with disbelief. "Wow you really are a determined guy, even after finding out your whole view on the world is a lie you're still focused on finding the truth of this case." It was funny to kokichi at how one track minded shuichi could be.

The sudden compliment was making Shuichi bashful, wait no he needs to focus. "Stop avoiding the question ouma-kun and confess already."

"What are you talking about? I already told you I'm not part of any group pranking the village."

Shuichi's voice was full of determination, it wasn't it's usual weak self, Kokichi can hear strength within it now. "Hmph well that could just be a lie, you did tell me you were a liar."

Kokichi was liking this new confident Shuichi, it was getting him a bit giddy. "But don't you remember? That night you beat me at a game and I promised to tell you only the truth for that night and I never break a promise."

Shuichi didn't look like he believed the other. He seemed deep in thought now but it wasn't long for him to speak again, his words came out slowly. "Well technically you said you weren't part of a group, if it's just you then you would be technically telling the truth and as a kitsune who i assume has many powers this task would be a breeze for you." 

God Kokichi really was lucky wasn't he, he had always wished to find a rival who could match him in intelligence, on the surface Shuichi looked like an awkward clumsy boy but kokichi can see now that this boy was the rival he had been waiting for, oh he was going to have so much fun with this boy. "Nehehe ok let's say that is true and I am the one behind all of this. Watcha gonna do about it?"

All of Shuichi's confidence was now gone. What CAN he do? Even if he could prove kokichi to be one hundred percent guilty it's not like they could do anything about it really, Kokichi was a powerful kitsune he was probably far stronger than any human, no one would be able to stop him if they wanted to. But Shuichi couldn't just give up like that he needed to think of some way to stop the other. "W-well i don't know yet but i won't just sit here and let you continue causing trouble."

Shuichi's forced threat made kokichi giggle to himself, oh he was looking forward to what the other would do. "Ok mr detective go ahead a try to stop me I'd love to see what you'll do to me...buuuut for now let's forget about all that and go back to the hot spring, you did promise me remember."

Shuichi didn't know what to say should he really still be hanging around kokichi like this, shuichi is supposed to be stopping him but at the same time he didn't want to lose his friendship with the other, even if he was annoying sometimes he was still a fun and interesting guy to be around. Shuichi decided to go with kokichi. Maybe he'd be able to stay friends with the other and be able to stop him at the same time, plus after all the hype Kokichi had created shuichi was seriously curious how it actually felt like to be in a hot spring.

The water was still warm when the two reached it, Kokichi's shirt was still off so he was able to jump right in. Shuichi didn't mind being shirtless in water so he took his shirt off too, he got in a lot more slowly letting his body adjust to the heat. 

The warm water was quite soothing. But even so Shuichi still couldn't fully relax, his mind was filled with too many questions he wanted to ask kokichi. His eyes wandered to the other, he looked him over once more taking extra time to study his fox like features. It was still all surreal. 

Kokichi caught the other's gaze, a smirk on his face. "Like what you see?~"

Shuichi turned his face away trying his best to hide the blush. "N-no it's not like that."

"Nehehe it's ok to be curious."

"Wha o-ouma-kun no it's not like that… Wait i i mean you're not bad looking or anything i was just y'know studying you...wait! But not like in a creepy way i mean i was just uhg!" Shuichi's hands covered up his face, he couldn't handle this kind of embarrassment or any for that matter. 

Kokichi just gave an innocent and confused look, his head tilted to the side. "Why are you getting all flustered, it's normal to be curious when meeting a yokai y'know… hehe or did you think I meant something else?"

Shuichi still refused to look up. His voice came out muffled "I was curious about the kitsune thing… n-nothing more."

"Nehehe you're so fun to tease. So want to ask me any questions then?"

Shuichi finally looked up at the other "y-yes… can i?"

Kokichi's face went dark, his voice came out deep. "Only if you beg me on your knees"

...was Shuichi really desperate enough to do that.

Kokichi just laughed, he could see the gears turning in the other's head. He really was considering doing it huh.

"No, I don't think I'll do that."

Kokichi was a bit disappointed to hear that, it would have been a hilarious thing to see but at the same time he was glad that his new rival had some backbone, their little game would become boring if Shuichi never fought back. "Oh so you do have some pride huh? Ok what about this, take me out to eat again and I'll let you ask a few questions."

"Fine but i can't keep buying you food like this I'm not made of money you know."

"Yay let's get something later tonight kay, same place as last time."

"That's fine with me… so can i ask my questions now?"

"Mmm nope. I wanna relax in the warm water right now… y'know you should relax too." Kokichi sunk deeper into the water, closing his eyes.

Shuichi didn't say anymore he just laid his head back and tried to empty his mind but to no avail, his mind was still racing with all that has happened so far. 

______________________

After a few hours of soaking and kokichi almost drowning himself by falling asleep in the water the two decided to get out and go get something to eat. The cold autumn air sent shivers down shuichi's spine, he quickened his pace he was desperate to get inside and out of the freezing air kokichi must have felt the same way because he sucried past shuichi and into the building, both boys made their way back to shuichi's room and changed into new dry cloths, kokichi had to borrow clothes from shuichi once more, they were extremely oversized on him. 

With fresh new clothes on the boys head into the forest, kokichi leading the way. The night was quite the only sound was of the wind rustling the few leaves that were left on the trees. 

Even though it was dark shuichi could tell this wasn't the same path kokichi had led him down the first time he went to neko neko dinner. 

“Um kokichi we are going to eat at the same place as last time right?” 

“yup.“ 

“Then how come we're going a different way from last time?”

“Wow most humans wouldn't notice something like that, you really are observant. Anyways to answer your question I'm seriously starving right now so we're taking a shortcut.” 

“Then why didn't we take it last time?”

“Because there's a man eating, bear this way, luckily for me i'm not a human so I'll be ok.” kokichi’s voice came out a lot more cheery compared to what he was saying. 

“...” shuichi hoped this was just one of the boy’s lies. “So anyways, are there other yokai here in the village.”

“Yup!”

“... is that all you're going to say?”

“Yup, I'm not going to take away this mystery from you, you're just gonna have to figure out who is and isn't.”

Shuichi should have expected this, kokichi never made anything easy, but he didn't mind too much, whenever he was able to solve a case he always got a bit of a confidence boost, so he liked to be given the chance to solve mysteries. If he had to bet on it he was sure that the two people working at the shop they were headed to were probably spirits too, most likely cat like spirits if their looks were anything to go by.

After a few more minutes of walking shuichi was able to spot the familiar blue lights once again. Kokichi quickened his pace towards said lights, making Shuichi have to run to keep up. Once in the shop Shuichi could see there were two new people, a very large boy and an elegant looking girl, kokichi must have known who they were because he ran up to them and plopped into the seat next to the boy. Shuichi took the seat next to koikichi.

“mom-chan and Gokuhara-chan! Funny seeing you two here”

The elegant looking girl was the one to speak first “please don't call me that and Hello ouma-kun” 

“Hello ouma-kun, whos ouma-kuns new friend.” the large boy was looking at shuichi now.

With a nervous smile shuichi introduced himself. “Im saihara shuichi.”

“gonta's name is gokuhara gonta” the large boy had a bright smile on his face. 

The elegant looking girl did a small head bow as she introduced herself. "Hello saihara-san i'm tojo kirumi”

"So what are you two doing here so early?" Kokichi asked.

"Gonta here to help setup festival." The large boy beamed with pride.

"Yes I am also here to help with the festival, gokuhara-san and I just got into town we're staying at the Hana bathhouse while we're here." Kirumi spoke with refined elegance.

"Wow me and saihara-chan are staying there too, oh and so is amami-chan."

Gonta looked to kokichi with excitement. "Oh! Is Ouma-kun helping with festival too?"

"If you mean messing with the villagers then yes he's been a big help with the festival." Shuichi gave a knowing look at kokichi.

Kokichi responded with an over exaggerated face. "You think I'm the one messing with the villagers! I would never do such a thing. I'm a mature guy saihara-chan, supreme leaders don't do stuff like that."

Kirumi and Shuichi just gave him a look.

The conversation was cut off by Ryoma walking towards them. "Ah I see we're starting to have some kind of class reunion." He looked to Kirumi and Gonta warmly.

Gonta had a large smile on his face when he saw the shorter boy. "Gonta happy to see hoshi-kun."

Kirumi gave a warm smile as she spoke "Yes I'm glad to see you as well hoish-san. It looks like you're doing well."

Ryoma nodded a small smile on his face. "Yeah I've been working at this shop for a while now trying to get my life back on track and see the world. Right now we're here in town to help with the upcoming festival."

"Oh gonta and tojo-san here to help with festival too." gonta said excitedly.

It was easy to see that these newcomers and kokichi all knew each other already, so it was a safe bet to think that all of them were probably yokai like kokichi. Without thinking Shuichi began to speak. "So are you three yokai too?" When the final word slipped out Shuichi couldn't believe he'd asked something so bold.

Gonta didn't hesitate and quickly responded. "Yes gonta yokai! Im a …"

Gonta's words were cut off by Kokichi slapping a hand over Gonta's mouth. "Shush gokuhara-chan you can't tell him what kind of yokai you are, that will take away the mystery solving fun and taking away people's fun is very ungentlemanly."

"Oh no gonta sorry. Gonta didn't mean to be ungentlemanly."

As Gonta and kokichi continued to talk Kirumi studied shuichi closely, her gaze reminded him of how his mother used to look at him when she thought he was misbehaving, it was making him really nervous. After a few minutes of looking shuichi over she began to speak politely but firmly. "Saihara-san are you a human?"

It was probably a bad idea to lie to this woman plus Shuichi always tried to avoid lying, so he told her the truth. "Yes I'm a human."

She looked over him once more again. "And how much do you know?"

"Well I know that ouma-kun is a kitsune and gokuhara-kun just admitted to being a yokai and there's a yokai festival happening sometime in october."

"And why do you want to know who is and isn't a yokai?"

Kokichi stopped his conversion with gonta and answered kirumi before shuichi was able to. "It's because he's a detective, asking questions is what they do."

"Oh saihara-kun detective? that mean he must be smart. Ouma-kun said detectives are really smart." Gonta was now staring at shuichi with aww.

Kirumi apparently didn't share gonta's opinion because she stared at shuichi with caution and slight distrust. "Ouma-san is it really wise of you to be revealing yourself to a human and a detective at that?"

"Awww don't be such a buzz kill mom-chan he's harmless." Kokichi's innocent playful smile disappeared and morphed into something dark and demonic. "And if he does do something bad I'll make his life a living hell." The boy's demonic look and dark voice sent shivers down shuichi's spine. Was this the power of a kitsune?

Kirumi nodded in agreement. "I believe you'd have no trouble with doing that ouma-san." She turned to Shuichi and began to speak to him. "I am a yokai saihara-san however if you tell any human this i would have no other choice but to eliminate you."

Shuichi just gulped nervously, he was starting to regret getting mixed up with this whole yokai stuff. 

Ryoma was the next one to speak. "Well since everyone else is confessing I might as well too, I'm also a yokai." 

Shuichi nodded in acknowledgement.

Kokichi was starting to get antsy, his leg jumping up and down a bit. "Ok ok now that introductions are over can we finally get something to eat? I'm starving over here guys."

The others nodded in agreement and made their orders, the conversation started back up once ryoma left to go prepare their food.

It was gonta who spoke first. "Will saihara-kun be going to the festival too?"

"Uh i don't know, I don't know where it is plus i wasn't invited."

Kokichi fox ears twitched up as he heard this. "What do you mean you don't know!? Uh don't you remember what I told you before silly. If you can show me you're not boring I'll add you as my plus 1 and I guess you managed to pass my test… barely."

"Yay gonta look forward to seeing saihara-kun at festival… oo maybe saihara-kun can help with festival too."

Shuichi thought about it before answering, he didn't mind helping out plus if he helped maybe kokichi would help too and if kokichi was busy helping set up the festival he wouldn't have time to mess with the village! It was the perfect plan. "I'd love to help gokuhara-kun. What about you ouma-kun?"

"I dunno sounds kinda boring." 

Shuichi needed to think of a way to convince the other if he wanted his plan to work. " But ouma-kun if you help setup the festival you could make it a lot more fun with your ideas."

Kirumi was nodding along to what shuichi was saying. "I agree, with your vivid imagination ouma-san you would most certainly make the whole festival more lively… as long as you promise to behave and not set up any traps I'd be grateful for your help."

Kokichi tapped his chin as he thought it over. "Hmm well i do like the idea of having some control over the festival plus it would be a huge waste of my time to come all the way here just to have the party be boring and dull hmm… ok I'll do it."

"Yay Gonta can help with any idea ouma-kun have." 

"Nehehe i know you will gokuhara-chan, you always help me out and that's why I consider you one of my best followers."

Shuichi was surprised to hear that statement. "Wait so you weren't lying you really do have followers ouma-kun?"

"Nishishi of course I do. Y'know in the yokai world I'm known as the ultimate supreme leader and every leader needs followers."

Shuichi looked to kirumi for confirmation. Despite just meeting her today, Shuichi already trusted her word over Kokichi's.

The girl nodded. "Yes it's true, within the yokai world ouma-san is known as the ultimate supreme leader, however despite claiming to have over 10,000 followers gokuhara-san is the only one I ever met."

Shuichi looked from kirumi to kokichi. This short childish boy was known as the ultimate supreme leader!?! Was he born into the title or maybe he was a very powerful yokai.

Kokichi had a sly smile on his face, his tail wagging lazily behind him "what do you underestimate my power saihara-chan? Hehe y'know I'm not just any kitsune I'm a 10 tailed one which basically means I'm a god and you have to do everything i tell you."

Shuichi wasn't sure if this was one of kokichi’s lies but he wasn't taking his chances, he made a mental note to never get on kokichi’s bad side.

Kokichi continued to smile as he studied shuichi, reading him like a book. Kokichi's stare was only interrupted once Ryoma came by holding everyone's food in hand.. 

The four of them ate together ryoma joining them as well for his lunch break.

Shuichi ate as he listened to each person talk about themselves, apparently everyone here except for shuichi is known for having an ultimate talent. Shuichi had never heard of such a thing, maybe it was just a yokai thing, well either way it still sounded interesting..

Gonta was apparently known as the ultimate Entomologist he excitedly told shuichi about some of his favorite bugs and why he liked them so much, It made Shuichi smile to hear someone speak so passionately about something they loved, even if he couldn't ever feel the same way about bugs. 

Kirumi was known as the ultimate maid. She told shuichi about the many people she served and the many things she was capable of, some of which was being able to speak 11 different languages, knowing how to find and serve over 1,153 different teas. She even gave him tips on the best method of cleaning. By the end of the conversation shuichi had a lot of respect for the women, maybe it was because she wasn't human that allowed her to do all that stuff, it was still very impressive nonetheless.

Apparently Ryoma was known for being an ultimate too, he didn't talk about it much tho the only thing he said was his talent was in sports but he gave up after he got into some trouble with a gang and went to jail. Despite everything that's happened he's been slowly finding meaning in life once more. The guy didn't go into much detail about his life making Shuichi's curiosity come out but the boy refused to speak more about himself leaving Shuichi disappointed.

The group stayed out talking with each other about talents and the festival until the sun began to rise over the horizon. It was Kokichi who ended the conversation saying that he was tired and ready to go to bed, Shuichi couldn't agree more he'd only gotten a few hours of sleep and tho it was fun talking with everyone, he was exhausted and ready to leave. 

Both boys bid their farewells and made their way back to the bathhouse, while they walked back Shuichi tried to see if he could get more information about kokichi's talent but all the other boy said was how he had 10,000 followers and ran an evil organization that had control all over the world. Normally Shuichi would have thought this to be a lie but kokichi wasn't normal he was a kitsune and if anyone could take over the world it was probably a kitsune. Shuichi didn't know whether to be scared or impressed with the boy if it were true, but he wasn't going to let this new information change the way he treated the other. 

Once the two made it home they went their separate ways and into their own rooms, despite all the craziness that had happened last night Shuichi was able to fall asleep instantly. Maybe when he wakes up he'll find that last night was all a crazy vivid dream.


End file.
